By Carroll College Circle K hosted a fundraising rave on Friday, Feb. 3 from 7 to 10 p.m. for AIDSpirit USA.
Students at the rave danced and sang their hearts out to the live DJ’s choice of music. Students paid a $5 entrance fee, took pictures with the glow-in-the-dark wall, and enjoyed free glow sticks and nonalcoholic beverages.
Julianna Breit, a senior, biochemistry and philosophy major, from Wilmington, North Carolina, enjoyed having a moment to herself on the dance floor.
“I am loving the opportunity to practice my Latin pop music for an inspiring cause,” said Breit.
Carroll’s Circle K is part of Circle K International which is a college student-led organization, emphasizing service, leadership, and fellowship. The rave embodies service fundraising for AIDSpirit USA, a nonprofit organization in Billings, which funds and educates children at an orphanage in Uganda.
The orphanage is becoming self-sufficient with AIDSpirit USA assisting the orphans in receiving college educations, among other things. Funds raised through events like Rave to Save will be donated to AIDSpirit USA who in turn will donate all of it to the orphanage.
Carroll’s Circle K hosted the rave as an experiment to compare student interest to past galas and swing dances. The club compared the $400 raised at the gala in 2021 and the $600 fundraised at the swing dance in 2022 to the $85 funded at the rave. They also compared the time commitment and the cost to decorate and host the event. They use club funds to host the rave, but everything fundraised is donated to AIDSpirit. The club will reassess, as the rave was not as popular as they had hoped.
Carroll’s Circle K plans to meet to discuss plans for next year and another event this spring to raise money for AIDSpirit. Carroll’s Circle K president, Henry Phillip, a senior biology major from Butte, said, with slumped shoulders and a hanging head, that the rave was not as successful as anticipated.
“I see it as a learning experience,” said Phillip, determined. “How do we come back in the future? How do we learn from this? It is difficult getting people to give their time and money… At the end of the day, it’s for a good cause. The money we donate has a much larger impact and significance to AIDSpirit other than monetary value.”
