The UNICEF chapter at Syracuse University will host its first black-tie ball on campus next month to raise money to aid children living in poverty around the world.

The Snowflake Ball will take place Dec. 4 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the atrium of the Life Sciences Complex, with the help of Phi Iota Alpha Fraternity, Inc. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m. The event will include a light meal, a DJ from SU’s student-run radio WERW, a dance floor and guest speaker Rachael Swanson, program manager for the UNICEF campus initiative. Proceeds from the event will go to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF.

UNICEF, which stands for United Nations Children’s Fund, is an internationally recognized organization providing aid to underprivileged children living in war, poverty, hunger or disease. UNICEF at SU is one of more than 100 UNICEF campus initiative clubs across the country.   

The addition of the Snowflake Ball will add a third event this year to benefit UNICEF at SU. SU’s Snowflake Ball will be modeled off of similar black-tie Snowflake Balls held annually in New York City and Beverly Hills. The event at SU won’t be black tie, but formal attire is expected.

‘We thought it would be great to have an event outside of just doing our fundraising initiates,’ said Tyra Jeffries, vice president for UNICEF at SU and a junior public relations major. 

The event is open to all SU students. To create relationships with other campuses, UNICEF at SU has invited Cornell University UNICEF members to attend, Jeffries said.

Members of UNICEF at SU said they are honored to have guest speaker Swanson in attendance. Swanson is the program manager for all UNICEF campus initiatives and will be giving a brief speech about the campus initiatives, as well as speaking with guests who come to the event.

Two hundred tickets for the Snowflake Ball will be on sale starting this week in the Schine Box Office. They will be $5 with an SU ID and $7 without an SU ID. Collection boxes will also be at the event for further donations.  

Phi Iota Alpha is working with UNICEF at SU to make this event possible because its philanthropy is UNICEF.

Jeffries said she hopes the two organizations working together will pull people from different parts of the campus.

‘By working with them, we believe we can broaden our audience and generate a higher attendance rate,’ she said.

As a student-run branch, UNICEF at SU already holds two major fundraising initiatives a year. The fall fundraiser, ‘Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF,’ is done in collaboration with SU’s International Relations Learning Community. Orange donation boxes are placed in various campus locations in October and are collected in November.

The proceeds are sent directly to the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, said Brikena Radoniqi, fundraising chair and a senior international relations and political science major. Last year UNICEF at SU raised $512, and the International Relations Learning Community raised about $700.  

The Tap Project is the second major fundraiser held during World Water Week in March. 

During the event, SU’s chapter asks Marshall Street and downtown businesses to ask customers to donate a dollar for their usually free water, Radoniqi said.

Every year there are five recipient countries of the tap water fund.

‘The money would later go to (the U.S. Fund for UNICEF) to help raise awareness for easier access to water, sanitation and hygiene,’ Radoniqi said. 

UNICEF at SU will be tabling the week before the ball to spread awareness and collect ‘Trick or Treat for UNICEF’ orange boxes from students who participated in that fundraiser.

‘Both UNICEF at SU and Phi Iota are very excited about doing this event because we believe that it is going to be something students have never experienced before,’ Jeffries said.  ‘If this event goes as planned, we hopefully can bring it to a larger venue like Goldstein Auditorium.’

cjsunde@syr.edu

Published on November 15, 2010 at 12:00 pm