Date Auction Raises Money for CEO4Teens

Last Thursday, Roggie's played host to a date auction, organized by the Boston College chapter of HerCampus.

The auction, which sold out its 60 available tickets, benefitted CEO4Teens, an organization co-founded by Brooks Dyroff, A&S '13, which seeks to provide educational opportunities to under-privileged teenagers around the world.

Julianne Wojno, co-president of HerCampus at BC and A&S '13, said that planning for the event began last July.

"I was watching Arrested Development," she said in an e-mail. "I happened to stumble across an episode that included a date auction, only it was for the more middle- aged crowd. It just hit me, how cool would it be to do an event like that on campus? It would be something completely different than anything else done previously."

The auction featured a performance by Sexual Chocolate; emcee Mike Judd, A&S '13; giveaways from Naked Pizza; commercials by Michael Dillon, A&S '13, and Ben Heider, A&S '12; and auctionees that included Heider; Lexi Zonfrelli, A&S '12; Bernard Homicile, CSOM '13; Cara Condon, A&S '12; Steve Pope, A&S'13; Elaina Donofrio, A&S '13; Kristyn Fields, A&S '13; Kasim Edebali, A&S '13; DJ Adams, A&S '13; Rachel Tang, CSOM '13; Annie Giglio, CSOM '12.

Dyroff said that this is not the first time that the BC community has reached out to help his cause.

"The BC community support for CEO4Teens has been absolutely amazing over the past two years," he said in an e-mail. "CEO4Teens would not be where it is today without the help of so many people from BC. Countless amounts of people want to help, which goes to show that our community truly is comprised of men and women for others. I have had so many students come out of their way to show their support, or ask how they can help without anyone asking them to do so. I feel blessed to have had so much help from various people within the BC community. So far, our generation has shown that we are capable of changing the world one step at a time."

When HerCampus approached him with the idea for the auction, Dyroff said that he was excited for students to partake in what he called a "win-win situation," a fun event that would benefit a good cause.

"We love entertaining various ideas on how to fundraise, and when HerCampus came to us with this date-auction concept, we were more than thrilled," he said. "Not only will it help raise money, but it will help raise awareness for our cause. Social Media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs like HerCampus help spread the word, which is something we love at CEO4Teens."

The decision to donate the proceeds to CEO4Teens was an effort to support BC-based causes, Wojno said.

"I wrote an article about Brooks for HerCampus' ‘Campus Celebrity' profile last April. Being someone passionate about social justice myself, I am extremely supportive of what Brooks, Kenny Haisfield, and CEO stands for," she said. "I love that they are about empowerment, that they follow the ‘teach the people how to fish' philosophy. Being an online magazine about all things relevant to BC, we like to keep things in house. We like to support our own students' endeavors, to support BC's men and women for others at work."

The event, though the first of its kind for HerCampus, was a success, Wojno and Katie Moran, co-president of HerCampus at BC and A&S '13, said.

"Date raffle ticket sales were unbelievable," Moran said in an e-mail. "We raised $400 in date raffles for 15 date auctionees. We are amazed and so excited that the event raised $1,000."

Wojno said that raising $1,000 in funds was a significant achievement.

"Because we had to limit the event ticket quantity to 60, I wasn't sure we would sell enough raffle tickets to make the $1,000 mark, but sure enough, we did, which is fantastic because that is the cost of one scholarship for CEO4Teens," she said. "We hope to have a bigger and better date auction in the spring. Having this experience already and more time to plan, we think it could be an even greater success. The key will be to find a larger venue so we can sell more tickets."

Moran said that by planning events like the auction, she also hopes to increase the radius of influence of HerCampus at BC.

"In addition to supporting CEO4Teens and having a great time meeting other BC kids, we also just wanted the event to help get our Her Campus BC name out there. Our staff of writers, photographers, and publicity is comprised of all BC girls of every grade," she said. "We truly love our school and our peers- we meet every week to think of ways to reach out to our student body. We want to be a relevant, helpful, and beneficial resource to girls on campus. By getting our name out there and increasing readership on campus, we hope to better reach BC girls in a meaningful way.