By: Emily Blake, Features Editor
On Monday, April 2, Hansen Student Center was home to the kick-off event for All In for Wesleyan.
The Campus Activities Board brought in a giant foam cannon, as well as a DJ and free pizza. This huge foam dance party was put together with the intentions of bringing together students, alumni and parents.
“The idea is for students to show and feel pride in their school, to feel the impact that donors make on their experience and to remember this as a fun spirit-filled day when they have the opportunity to donate in the future,” said Director of Student Activities Liz Vales.
All In for Wesleyan is a one day fundraising event, which encourages students and staff to think bigger.
It was started six years ago by Illinois Wesleyan trustee John Horton, class of ’82, and his wife Joann who offered a gift of $100,000 if alumni and friends could raise $50,000 in one day. This challenge was met and has turned into one of the largest fundraisers on campus through generous donations from alumni and other donors.
Margaret Lisciani, class of ’69, and Vic Lisciani, class of ’68, gave $15 toward student scholarships for every student that showed up on Monday, April 2.
Over 300 hundred students went, and a little over $4,500 was raised on Monday alone. Other challenges and goals were set and met on Tuesday, allowing Illinois Wesleyan to exceed their goal and raise a total of $714,533 from 2,193 different donors.
“We have never held a foam party before and have had success with dance parties in the past, so we chose to go with something new,” said Vales.
When students arrived at Hansen, they were handed a ticket to make sure they counted in the fundraising and followed the flow of people to a table to receive a free All In for Wesleyan t-shirt.
When more students began to pack in, they were ushered to the dance floor which was covered in plastic and carpet.
“The lights were awesome – the strobe lights and the black light were my favorites and the music was good. I think everyone had fun with all the foam, music, and pizza,” said freshman Lauryn Lingad.
DJ Spade was the man of the night. The music was very techno style or dubstep.
“It was fun to jump in the bubbles,” said sophomore Oliva Croner.
“We would kick [the foam] around and even lay down in it. My favorite thing to do was make ‘bubble-angels’.”
The carpet in the middle of the floor was the perfect size for the range of the foam cannon, which spewed out tons of odorless, colourless bubbles. “Going into the event I was nervous of what they meant by foam, but was really glad when we got a free shirt, and the worst of it was just getting a little wet,” said Croner.
In the end, students enjoyed themselves at Monday night’s event. “I love when our school puts on events like this because they are a lot of fun! I was able to take a break from all of my homework to just have fun with some friends for a while and just enjoy college.” Said freshman Brianna Fogo.
The other activites brought onto campus for the students, like the free donuts, inflatables and trivia night, were also intended to spread the word about the fundraising and give back to the students. “I think it was definitely a success, with way more students in attendance than expected,” said Vales.