Pamela Bump
Equinox Staff
The weekend before Halloween, on-campus organizations supported their causes by throwing holiday-themed fundraising events at Keene State College.
The highlight of the weekend remained the dance at the newly built TDS center as it hosted its first Halloween Dance, known as the first annual “Beaux Arts Ball.” The Ball was put together by students of the Architecture Club. The event took place in the hub area of the new building and featured a DJ, water pong, other Halloween-related games, a costume contest and a wide variety of snacks and refreshments for guests.
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The five-dollar admission fee went towards the Architecture Club, which is working to create awareness of KSC’s architecture program on a more national level. The Ball’s proceeds will not only be used towards future events in the TDS center, but also help architecture students to take on different opportunities, such as traveling to architecture conferences around the country, according to the club’s Vice President and one of creators of this event, Ryan Glick.
Glick, a KSC senior, also added, “The Beaux Arts Ball is a tradition of many architecture schools in the country, and we wanted to bring it to our school as well. We also wanted to give people a chance to see this new great building we have on campus. This is the first time that many students here have seen it.” Glick added, “This building is major reason why students want to be here [KSC].”
Glick shared that the club is planning to make the “Beaux Arts Ball” an annual dance on campus. Glick said, “People get to experience the building and have fun at the same time.“
Glick also noted that next year, the campus will be hosting an Architecture conference with over 100 students from all over the country, along with other various events from the architecture club and department. He also said that each year they will plan to make the next Ball, “Bigger and better.”
KSC student and Architecture Club Event Manager, Stefan Cavezzali, added similarly that the Architecture Club is working “to promote awareness on campus and nationally about our architecture program.”
Cavezzali also said that T-shirts were sold at the Ball and given out to costume contest winners. Cavezzali also indicated that the Architecture club would have two teams this year for the KSC campus’ “Can-Struction” event on Nov. 11.
Alex Fournier, KSC student and Architecture Club president, added, “We’re [the architecture club and program] trying to get on a more national level.”
KSC student Kelsey Shope commented, “This is a great dance. The lighting is really cool and they have an awesome dance floor.”
Shope added that she enjoyed the brand new building. Shope stated, ‘This building is so big a spacious.”
KSC senior Alex Katz shared that he hoped the TDS Center would have more opportunities like the Beaux Arts Ball for students in the future.
Katz commented, “This dance is really good all around. The DJ has some really good mixes. The building is also really cool.” Katz said, “It’s nice to experience this new building. I have a class here and there’s so much interesting and new technology here.”
In addition to the dance, students participated in a free haunted house in the basement of Huntress Hall, inspired by the haunting stories of Harriet Huntress. The basement and its classrooms transformed into an old haunted version of KSC, complete with spiderwebs and student actors with zombie-like make up.
Sophomore Robert Johnson, a member of the hall council, explained, “I think we must have planned a good month ahead for this.”
The haunted house put together by the MoHuFi Hall council was a free, but donation optional, event.
Donations made at the front went towards the National Kidney Association. MoHuFi also partnered up with members of Greek Life to create the event, according to Johnson.
Johnson, who was manning the entrance table, also shared that he believed the haunted house was very effective in scaring participants as he “saw a few people that got pretty scared,” by the haunted house.
Junior Celeste Thibault said that she enjoyed the haunted house. Thibault said, “It was based on some scary realistic details, like the haunting of Harriet Huntress and it was also for a really good cause.”
Pam Bump can be contacted at
pbump@keene-equinox.com