photo by christian bell Last year’s beach party featured a massive bonfire on the beach and dancing late into the night. Organizers hope this year’s gathering is even more successful.

For the second year in a row, sophomore Doug Curtis and junior Mark Bonner are hosting a beach dance party to raise canned goods for Eastern CRC.

“It all started for a Propaganda and Persuasion class last year,” Curtis said. “We wanted to do something original.” The idea was to persuade people to participate, and it met with phenomenal success. “We had around 250 people last year, and we raised over 700 cans,” said Curtis, “over a month’s supply for the Eastern CRC food pantry. This year we’re hoping for 500 people.”

The cost of admission is two cans, but Curtis and Bonner are offering raffle prizes as incentive for party-goers to bring more.

“We’ve currently got 500 dollars worth of prizes donated from local businesses,” Curtis said, “TGI Friday’s, Max and Erma’s, Damon’s, Ucellos, and Eastbrook Lanes to name a few.”

“We’re giving away everything from t-shirts to cd’s to gift certificates – pretty much as an incentive to give [canned food],” Bonner added. “As much fun as the party is going to be, the real goal is to raise cans for the food mission.”

But Curtis and Bonner certainly expect to have fun.

“We’re going to have a 25 foot bonfire,” Bonner explained, “not to mention a ton of beach, were we can be as loud as we want and have as many people as we want.”

“Also,” Bonner adds, “thanks to funding we’ve been able to pay for sound equipment and refreshments – it’s gonna be bigger and better because of that.”

Financial support for these expenses is coming from the Knollcrest East Apartments. Bonner, an RA in KE, found a receptive audience when he approached Area Coordinator Nicole Boymook about the possibility of procuring monetary assistance.

“The event was such a success last year that we thought it was a good service project activity,” Boymook remarked.

The party takes place this Saturday, April 28th, on a section of private beach belonging to the Curtis family. (Directions can be obtained from the fliers Curtis and Bonner have distributed around campus). The party begins at 7:00 pm and continues until dawn, or whenever the most diehard dancers have lost their verve.

Both Curtis and Bonner are convinced of the worthiness of their cause. “[The pantry] is in a needy area, always in need of donations,” Curtis explained. He was initially attracted to the idea because “the pantry is an actual store, not a hand out. They charge really low prices (like 10 cents a can), but they aren’t giving it away.” Though neither Curtis nor Bonner attend Eastern CRC, Bonner did his Streetfest project there. “It just stuck in my mind,” he said. “They don’t know about [this year’s party] yet. We’re just gonna show up and really blow them away.”

For such an undertaking, the beach dance party has come together remarkably well. “One of the hardest parts about getting this together has been getting businesses to give,” Bonner explained. “We asked 100 businesses. Maybe 20 actually responded. Most that did are giving anywhere between 10 to 45-50 dollars, some more. It’s really encouraging that people are willing to help us like that.”

And so everything seems to be in order.

“We had so much fun doing it last year,” Bonner said, “There was such a good response, and the pantry was so grateful... everything came together really well for us. But with their plans in place and fliers distributed, Curtis and Bonner face one last effort to prepare for Saturday night: gathering enough wood to fuel a 25-foot bonfire.

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