In a charity effort to benefit Habitat for Humanity, the Association for Campus Events (ACE) partnered with Sorority Alpha Sigma Tau (AST) to transform University Crossing into a Vegas-esque casino. Casino Night for a Cause provided an opportunity for students to try their luck and benefit those less fortunate as well.
Casino Night for a Cause is the second installment of a succesful event that occurred last year. Billy Overstreet, ACE member who helped oversee the event for both years, said last year’s experience was so positive, he wanted to repeat the effort.
“Initially, they came to us with that idea, just kind of an idea for a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity,” said Overstreet. “We decided to run with it last year and we had so much fun, we decided to keep it going.”
For the donation of ten dollars, attendees of the event were alloted a certain amount of chips to use at the various games set up in University Crossing. Games included three card poker, blackjack, texas hold em’, casino war, and many other activites one would find at a typical Vegas casino. The dealers for the majority of these games were AST sorority sisters who volunteered their efforts for the night. Food and drink were also provided.
The sorority sisters who manned each table knew the basics of each game they provided and ran their activity like an actual dealer in Vegas would. “They covered the tables very well,” said Overstreet. “The tables were pretty packed all night. There were a lot of volunteers that AST provided, so it was pretty awesome.”
There was also a raffle at the evening’s end. Around five or six people got the opportunity to win prizes.
In the future, Overstreet hopes to incorporate a larger marketing campaign for the event. “I know last year we had months more to market, and this was not as much time,” said Overstreet. “I think definitely more marketing [would be good], but otherwise, this event, I would say, was a huge success.”
Overstreet was immensley pleased at the attendence he received. “It’s a Friday night at a college. I think to have this many students be here at the event in the name of charity, in the name of Habitat for Humanity, I think that was so huge,” said Overstreet. “We had a bunch of different organizations, it felt very nice to see so many people turn up for this event.”
