Despite having to be rescheduled because of the Feb. 15 snowstorm, The Annual Ball 2014 at The Westin Copley Place on Friday night was a sold-out success.
“At the most basic level we sold out which is always a tremendous achievement, but more importantly, everyone seemed to be having fun and enjoying a night out with their friends, which is the true measure of a successful event,” said Alisha Wright, manager of Heritage Programming in UGBC and A&S ’15, in an email.
Eight hundred students attended the event, which celebrated the AHANA community. Doors opened at 9 p.m. and closed at 10 p.m. Buses ran back and forth from midnight until 1 a.m. to transport students from the hotel back to campus.
The ball featured a DJ and a photo booth throughout the night. Students were treated to a full dinner including pasta, tacos, dumplings, and bread, which was set up in both sides of the ballroom. Desserts included cookies and brownies.
“The Ball is usually a very smooth event to run,” Wright said. “There typically aren’t many surprises when putting together this event, so I’d say the most difficult part of planning the Ball this year was handling the postponement of the Ball-rescheduling with the hotel as well as our DJ and the photo booth was a strain, but we have such an amazing staff that everything ended up running very smoothly.”
Wright and nine coordinators from Heritage Programming-Klevis Baholli, A&S ’15; Jose Estevez, CSOM ’15; David Schanker, A&S ’15; Seth Blanke, CSOM ’16; Chris Kim, A&S ’16; Will Krom, A&S ’16; Jake Robinson, A&S ’16; and Tiffany Stanton, A&S ’16-worked together with The Westin and the Student Programs Office to plan and organize the event.
“We worked with the hotel to reschedule the date for Ball,” Wright said. “There are so many schedules besides our own that we had to take into consideration, so we had to work very closely with SPO and The Westin to reschedule the Ball.”
Members of Heritage Programming also collaborated with BCPD to ensure that the event ran smoothly and without problems.
UGBC Leadership Academy members Maggie Chang and Temi Ojo, both A&S ’17, also provided additional help with planning and organizing.
“I really enjoyed working on The Annual Ball, because we were able to see the results of all the work and planning we had put into it over the past few months,” Chang said in an email.
Originally called “ALC Ball,” the event was renamed the “Annual Ball” because of the recent restructuring of the undergraduate government.
“The large-scale programming events from GLC and ALC were brought together under Heritage Programming, which falls under the Programming Division,” Wright said.
Heritage Programming has also spent the past few months planning and organizing the Annual Showdown, which will be held April 5 in Conte Forum. Dance groups including Synergy, Phaymus, Uprising, Sexual Chocolate, F.I.S.T.S., Irish Dance, and PATU will be performing in the annual dance competition.
