The guys worked hard this year. Downtown State College sparkled, glowed and shone. Oh, yes. And blinked.

Last night, the Interfraternity Council held its third annual holiday lighting contest, bringing several prominent State College citizens out to wander for hours in the snow.

The evening started out cold and rapidly grew colder as the guest judges took in the lights, sounds and snow of the holiday season.

"We want to show our holiday spirit to the community," said Jon Jurewicz (junior-labor and industrial relations) of Acacia fraternity, 234 Locust Lane, who organized the event. "It's a lot of fun to decorate our houses, and we love to show them off to people."

Serving as a guest judge, State College Mayor Bill Welch agreed.

"We love to show off our fraternities," Welch said. "It's quite an event, and it really brings people into the fraternity district who wouldn't otherwise venture in."

"Besides, if you can't reach out to others during the holiday season, when can you?" he added.

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 220 E. Beaver Ave, placed first in this year's event, followed by Kappa Delta Rho, 420 E. Prospect Ave., and Delta Sigma Phi, 508 Locust Lane, respectively.

Thirty-three fraternities participated in this year's event, up from last year's 26. Each fraternity had its own unique way of convincing passerbys to stop and take notice. Many played Christmas music, and there were dancing Santas, flashing lights and invitations to come inside and share some hot chocolate.

However, the most important thing was the lights.

"This was our first year with a house to decorate, so this was the first year we were able to participate," said Mike Todd (senior-computer science), the president of Kappa Alpha Order, 234 E. Beaver Ave. "We were really happy with the results."

"I think we used about 20,000 lights," said Chad Stevens (junior-environmental resource management and environmental engineering), who coordinated the lights for Kappa Alpha's house. "We really like the idea of being able to give back to the community. Since our house is in such plain view, we want everyone to be able to join into the holiday spirit with us."

Kappa Delta Rho fraternity, 420 E. Prospect Ave., who have placed second for the past two years, came out in full force last night. "I think we used about 25,000 lights," said Pat Vernisi (senior-management science and information systems). "This is my last year to participate, so we really wanted to go out with a bang."

"On a whole, the guys seem to have put more into it this year," said William Asbury, vice president of student affairs.

In the past, winners of the event have had money taken off of their IFC dues. This year, however, that was not the case.

"Prizes weren't necessary this year," Jurewicz said. "We got them (the fraternities) to come out on their own."

There was another change to this year's program. Several of the houses that participated in the decorating contest also opened their doors to the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program of Centre County. While viewing the lights, the children were able to enjoy cookies and hot chocolate as well.

"The whole holiday season extends out into the community through this event," said Janet Knauer, a guest judge and State College Borough Council member. "It's a great way to experience the holiday season."

"The whole experience was a lot of fun."