Wednesday, April 4, 2012

The Red Ball


Outfit--Blouse: Sandro, Skirt: Forever21, Shoes: Lucky Brand, Necklace: JCrew


 Dear Readers,
As usual, I have been a horrible blogger. I can't even remember the last time I posted, and although this repeated apology is getting a little embarrassing, I swear I have a legitimate excuse this time. For the past couple weeks, I've been organizing a benefit party at my school with my club SGAC for HIV/AIDS awareness and fundraising! I've been working on HIV/AIDS related service work for a while now. Back in high school, we had to take community service related courses the fall of our sophomore year. I took one about the impact of HIV/AIDS on society and volunteered at a food kitchen for individuals and their families affected by HIV/AIDS. Since then, this subject has followed me around more than I thought. My senior year, I did work to raise awareness on the Genocide in the DRC, during which time I realized just how dire the AIDS pandemic is in Sub-Saharan Africa. So in college, I decided to start back my HIV/AIDS related work and joined SGAC.
This year we decided to throw a party called "the Red Ball". With this event, we were hoping to raise awareness of both the global and national facts of HIV/AIDS as well as raise money for related organizations, such as a local AIDS Community Center. We also supported this fun new-ish condom company called Sir Richards Condom by providing a condom with every ticket. This company acts kind of like the TOMS of the condoms, aka for every condom you buy they give a condom to a person where the AIDS pandemic is still an issue (such as Uganda or Haiti).
For like a month, I was a nervous wreck planning this event. I was calling caterers, hoping liquor permits would go through, absolutely petrified no one would donate or go to the event. Ultimately all those fears were for nothing. Everything worked out beautifully, the event was far more successful and popular than I could have ever anticipated, and we raised over $1000! For those readers who might be from the Colgate Community, thank you so much for your support for SGAC's fundraising efforts!
This is the back detailing on my blouse. The frills continue on the front, but the fact that the detailing continues onto the back always amazes me.
 For the event, we asked everyone to wear Red, the color of HIV/AIDS awareness. This proved far more difficult than we originally thought, and a strange amount of people said they couldn't go because they had no red. It turned out I only had two items of clothing that were red, so apparently I'm not that fond of the color either. My outfit was a combination of all things (besides my necklace) that I never ever wear, but bought with the full intention of wearing everyday. My blouse is from Sandro that a bought three years ago in France and probably have only worn a handful of times. My red skirt is from Forever 21. And those heeled booties that I begged my dad to buy me for christmas are Lucky Brand, I think I've worn then twice (good thing they were 60% off).

This is the poster for the event!
I told you the event was a success and people came!
This is the gorgeous team of SGAC (minus our single male member)