Among the different social events hosted by Greek organizations on campus, date parties are elaborate shindigs for sororities and fraternities alike. At date parties, it is common for members of Greek organizations to invite (or get set up with) another person in the hopes of having a jolly good time. Sarah Wemmer, a fifth year and a member of the Alpha Omicron Pi sorority at UC Berkeley, hoped to invite acclaimed DJ Dillon Francis to her date party Thursday.

Initially, Wemmer thought of inviting rapper RiFF RAFF to her date party since she met him on a trip to Las Vegas. Encouraged by her friends, Wemmer decided to invite him but quickly realized that RiFF RAFF might not be the best date. “He isn’t someone I’d really want to spend a lot of time entertaining,” Wemmer said. “I think his expectations would be hard to meet, and I wouldn’t really want to be in a position to owe him anything.”

After realizing this, Francis seemed like the perfect date because Wemmer considers him more relaxed and fun to have around.

“He has a really silly sense of humor that I think really closely mirrors my own,” Wemmer said. “He also so obviously cares about his fans and has done some hilarious videos, collaborations and other funny stuff with us.”

Inspired by Francis’ video “Exit Through the Donut Hole (I Can’t Take It),” Wemmer bought a donut costume and wrote the script to re-enact the DJ’s video in hopes of getting his attention. With the help of her rooommate Emily Schreck, a fourth year, the video took approximately 13 hours to film and edit and was published on YouTube on Nov. 5.

While strolling around campus with her flamboyant donut costume and confident attitude, Wemmer expected “people would stare at me way more than they did,” she said. “Ironically, the donut attracted more positive attention than I wanted it to.”

Unfortunately for Wemmer, reaching out to Francis was more difficult than expected. At first, Wemmer tried to contact the DJ through various tweets and even direct messaging on Twitter.

But Wemmer heartbreakingly realized that in order to send direct messages to Francis on Twitter, the DJ had to follow her back — which, he was not doing.

Wemmer did not give up. She spent almost the entirety of Veterans Day promoting herself. “I tweeted furiously at him, shared it on Facebook and reached out to a lot of people, including his management, BuzzFeed, Ellen DeGeneres, ABC7 News and Oprah,” she said.

After hard work and resilience, Francis’ management responded to Wemmer’s enthusiastic efforts Thursday. “They said they thought it was hilarious and sent me some merchandise and tickets to his shows in LA at the Shrine, which I’ll be going to,” Wemmer said. “But sadly he’s out of town and can’t come to the date party.”

Even though the DJ cannot attend the date party, a friendly relationship with Francis might still emerge, as he has already favorited some of Wemmer’s tweets.