Samantha Cohen & Mehr Singh
Staff Writers
On Friday night a swarm of high school students momentarily forgot about their AP tests, Bio projects, and upcoming finals in order to assemble for a good time. While this action may seem typical of a Friday night the event that took place on May 11th was far from typical. At Eight o’clock students from all grade levels of the upper school joined A.W.E.S.O.M.E. Club for their second annual fundraising dance in order to raise awareness and funds for The Northwestern Brain Tumor Institute. For a ten dollar donation students spent the night dancing away to Latin’s very own accomplished DJs at Park West. For only ten dollars more, Latin students were able to purchase awesome lax pinnies, popular attire for Latin kids. The sleek venue was adorned with large flat screens which displayed images from last year’s fundraising event and some entertaining flashbacks, an enormous disco ball, and plush leather couches. Perhaps the most appealing decorations were the packages of SkinnyPop popcorn which were adorned on each table. Flashing lights encircled the dance floor on which hundreds of students jammed out for the cause.
Junior and dance attendee Cam Arikin thought,
“It was was fun and really well organized and impressive. Mainly though I thought it was for a great cause.”
In terms of the success,“We are still counting the exact monetary amount, but as far as we can tell it went incredibly well. A lot of people came out and many concessions were sold,” replies Co-Head of the club and Latin School Junior Michael Berger. DJ Brumjutt, also known as Freshman Gaurav Goparaju, started the night off playing some tunes and was followed by DJ Ben Sullivan, Junior Ben Sullivan, and finally DJ Toshi, Junior Josh Goldberg. DJs Brumjutt and Sullivan showcased their talents in front of the Latin students for the first time and DJ Toshi was welcomed back with cheers from the crowd after his highly applauded performance at Winter Ball. When asked how the club snagged such awesome DJs (pun intended) Berger says “We had some information DJ Toshi didn’t want leaked but the rest devoted their time generously.”
While we all know the club is awesome, what does “ A. W. E. S. O. M. E” stand for anyway?
“This year we changed the name abbreviation to The ACC, or the Awesome Club for Cancer, however originally the club was dubbed A.W.E.S.O.M.E to abbreviate “The Amazing Wowing Extremely Swell Obligation for More Cancer Enlightenment, ” says Berger.
Co-Head Blake Lasky and Berger agree that next year they wish to focus the club more on service in addition to “what we do best, fundraising. We hope to expand participation so that more Freshmen and Sophomores will be involved and encouraged to participate in service,” explains Lasky. Maybe next year people as energetic as Junior Michael Begel who ran the next morning will also also participate in the Magellan Spring 10K for the foundation after a night of “bringing down the house”. “We just really want to emphasize how much this club means to us. It really hits home for both me and Blake. We have been working really closely with the foundation in order to make a difference,” states Berger.
