Purple gloves pack a punch for competition

Front Campus was a sea of dancing purple hands Wednesday afternoon. A videographer stood on a crane high above the ground to capture just over 200 hands clothed in purple gloves and the dancing students they belonged to. The Purple Glove Dance, sponsored by The GIVE Center, drew quite a crowd to Front Campus on Feb. 17. “It was a terrific event. Everyone was excited about participating and helping a good cause. I was happy the Thunder Cup could be a part of it,” said Justin Stubbs, a junior pre-special education major and creator of the Thunder Cup.

Senior psychology major and GIVE Center worker Jaquie Beute took on the large task of organizing and creating a video for The Purple Glove Dance within her role as the director, organizer and “mastermind.”

“This started as a project I wanted to take on in order to get more volunteer hours for the Presidential Service Award and it has turned into something so much bigger than that. I’ve been overwhelmed by the support of the students, faculty and staff of GCSU and I am thankful for everyone’s involvement,” Beute said.

The Purple Glove Dance is a campaign that was established as a creative way to join the fight against cancer. Relay For Life teams across the country were encouraged to create a video featuring the purple gloves to be entered into a contest to increase cancer awareness. Each video entered has the opportunity to win a minimum donation of $5,000 toward The American Cancer Society. A portion of the proceeds from all boxes of purple gloves purchased for each production goes toward the fundraising and increases the amount of the donation available to win. For this event, The GIVE Center purchased over 1,000 gloves, which has grown to over 2,000 with the help of the Homecoming Committee and Campus Life. The event was covered by local media outlets, including The Union Recorder and WMGZ-FM, which did a live broadcast from Front Campus.

“The turnout was great! The people who came out were so enthusiastic,” senior psychology major Rebecca Walden said.”I hope that our video wins the $5,000 for a cause after that because we deserve it.”

The video filmed on Front Campus will be edited along with other videos previously shot at various campus events featuring student organizations such as the Resident Student Association and different Greek organizations. After the purple gloves were distributed, the event began by forming the word “HOPE” using volunteers. Choreography was then put in place by Kayla Jones to Jay Sean’s “Do You Remember?” and a raffle for T-shirts was done to close out the event.

“The Purple Glove Dance was by far one of my favorite events for Relay For Life. Jaquie and The GIVE Center staff worked so hard and it turned out fabulously. Relay For Life is such an awesome cause and I am so grateful to have been part of such a wonderful event,” said senior English major and GIVE Center volunteer Belinda Dennis.

Senior English major Amber Barnard, whose grandmother is a breast cancer survivor who is now battling cancer again, thinks that The Purple Glove Dance is a great event for an even greater cause.

“My grandmother has battled cancer before and won, but now it’s back. I just hope she can do the same thing this time. Promoting cancer awareness is always a good thing, because it helps people to not lose hope,” Barnard said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 19 2010. Filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry