Students auctioned for charity

On Wednesday Feb. 10 the Office of Housing and Residential Life (OHRL) hosted its third annual Date Auction to benefit the American Red Cross: Haiti Relief fund. The night raised over $3,000.

Over 200 students came to watch the event and everyone was amazed at the outcome. “I was actually really surprised how many people were willing to donate so much money for a good cause,” freshman Kristelle Duchard said.

Preparing for the event took heavy communication between the OHRL and other departments throughout the University. “Planning ahead was key. We reserved the Multipurpose Room in November 2009,” said Maria’s Tower Resident Director Dave Whitman.

“Three e-mail blasts [were sent] to all residents over the course of 2 weeks, we worked with Student Development and Campus Activities (SDACA) to e-mail blast all campus clubs/organization, we utilized the display on Homer screens and mentioned the event in the Pace Pulse.”

The MCs of the event were Resident Advisors (RA) Ebboni Young and Lisha Bodden who kept the attitudes positive and crowd laughing as their friends helped raise money for Haiti.

Students walked down the catwalk set in the middle of the Multipurpose Room for hours as their likes, dislikes and personal facts were read to entice potential bidders.

Their energy was heightened by RAs Matt Helenek and Ace Ventura who supplied the auctioned residents’ their favorite songs to walk to.

The students who sold themselves were not required to go on dates with the person who brought them for the most money; the only stipulation was for the pair (or more in some cases) to take a picture together.

A majority of the participants were from Maria’s Tower but John Street and Fulton Street residents also strutted for Haiti.

“Our goal was the raise money for the Haitian Relief effort [this year]. Last year, [the OHRL] raised over $1,000 for The Children’s Aids Society of New York and the year before that we raised $500 for St. Jude's,” RA Tanya Vazirani said.

The OHRL and Maria’s Tower RAs put a lot into this date auction and we raised more money than our department ever has for any cause. We had an amazing turnout and are definitely going to continue to have the auction every year.”

“The auction was sexy as hell,” freshman Janelle Maloney said. Student reaction to the auction was incredibly positive highly anticipated for next year.

RD Whitman said it the best, “The largest pull for this event was that it was about having fun, no commitment was needed after you "bought" someone. It was light hearted, but also serious because it was for a cause that is very present on a lot of people's minds and in the media around the world.”