The Latino Student Union will add a new element to next week's dance instruction in the RFC's old pool space.
Students are invited to dig up an unsightly sweater or take advantage of Goodwill's 50% discount on Saturdays for an Ugly Sweater party. The party will raise money for the Center for Healing and Hope in Goshen.
The party will start at 6:30 p.m. next Wednesday in the RFC's old pool space. There will be refreshments, sweater competitions and a Latino dance party.
"This is something that I'd like to see happen every year," said Matt Saucedo, academic counselor. Despite Saucedo's desire to create the annual event, the concept developed out of a running joke.
The idea to host an Ugly Sweater party to raise money for charity started with a misunderstood complement, says Union officer and senior Interdisciplinary Studies major Isacc Hernandez.
At every Union meeting, Hernandez said he complimented Aranza Torres’ eclectic sweater collection. His flattery was perceived as sarcastic, he said.
"It wasn't meant to turn into a running joke," Hernandez said, "but it turned into that because she never takes me serious."
As the Union was deciding on an event to support a local charity, the sweater party started as a joke, said Hernandez. Next week, what started as a joke will become a fun-filled local fundraising event, according to Saucedo.
Categories in the sweater competition will include ugliest and nicest sweaters, softest and roughest sweaters, heaviest and lightest sweaters as well as decades sweaters, which are sweaters that best represent each of the last six decades.
For more information about the event, contact Matt Saucedo in the Good Library, or email him at msaucedo@goshen.edu.
