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Printer-Friendly ModeAuction raises money for Relay For Life
April 4, 2005 —
The Gay-Straight Alliance auctioned off volunteers to go shopping with a buyer for a day to help raise money for this year's Relay For Life.
The "Rent-a-Hottie" auction took place Thursday, March 24 to collect money for the Student Association-coordinated fundraiser that benefits the American Cancer Society. The goal of this year's Relay is to accumulate $50,000.
While "Rent-a-Hottie" had some initial trouble getting volunteers to be auctioned, GSA President Aaron Brown was quick to label the auction as a success.
"I define a success as something that gets planned and is then saw to the finish no matter what," he said. "There was confusion with who could participate."
Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, Brown said the event was able to thrive by letting people see GSA in another way.
"There is a negative view of the GSA on our campus," he explained. "We seem to be either too political or too angry. There's not a happy medium that we can fall into."
Brown went on to say that the auction was a way to let people see GSA members in a different light and added, "The best thing overall was sitting there, watching people who are not part of GSA and come in and start laughing with the rest of us at the auctioneers."
Though the ultimate goal of the auction was to raise money for Relay For Life, a second objective was to try and change people's perception of the GSA. A Drag Show had also been planned by the GSA to help eliminate the serious label that Brown alluded to but the show had to be cancelled because of scheduling conflicts.
"We're going to try to do it again sometime next school year," Brown said of the Drag Show. "We're not going to give up too easily."
GSA has been active as of late, with a number of events completed and more yet to come. Brown feels it's important for GSA to be active on campus.
"It has been far too long since the GSA has done something fun and tried to be inclusive of the campus as a whole," he added.
While GSA succeeded in collecting for Relay For Life, they were also able to bring more attention to their organization as well.
"'Rent-a-Hottie' was an event that was to help us raise money for Relay For Life," Brown said. "Its intent was to help people see that the GSA can have fun and also be serious."