COAR variety show raises money for Habitat for Humanity

By EMILY HANSON

Community Outreach and Resource’s annual Variety Show wowed audiences at the University of Mary Washington with an array of campus acts on Friday, Feb. 20 while raising money for their Alternative Spring Break Program with Habitat for Humanity. COAR raised funds through many different avenues, including one-dollar tickets, a raffle and a silent auction.

According to the COAR website, this year’s Alternative Spring Break programs feature trips to Tennessee, Alabama and Florida.

COAR also boasted a wide range of support from local community organizations. This included a daylong promotional at Benny Vitali’s in downtown Fredericksburg the Thursday before the show. Fifteen percent of all profits that day were donated to COAR’s Alternative Spring Break.

Junior sociology major Rachael Sturgis will be attending the Alternative Spring Break trip going to Maryville, Tennessee.

“I think Variety Show is a good way to raise money because it gives students and the community a way to support us in our effort to help people in other communities,” said Sturgis.

Before the show and during intermission raffle tickets were sold for various prizes, including a Soup & Taco gift card, tickets to Six Flags, hockey pucks signed by the Washington Capitals’ Mike Green, a Pancho Villa gift card and bags of popcorn from The Popcorn bag.

The silent auction featured a generously donated bow tie from Cedric Rucker, associate vice president and dean of student life at UMW, along with a signed football from members of the Washington Redskins and a pack of tickets to a Richmond Flying Squirrels game.

The UMW Dance Team kicked off the talent portion of the show.

The first half of the show had impressive performances from BellACapella, Alter Egos, Encore! and the UMW Breakers. These performances all elicited plenty of cheers of the crowd.

Junior history major and member of Encore! Grace May said all the performances were enthralling.

“The other acts did a phenomenal job. All the performers seemed as though they were having a great time,” said May.

During intermission, a slide show of previous Alternative Spring Breaks showed numerous UMW students working hard on building homes for families from other communities.

ASA Dance Team, Object Manipulation Group and Eagle Bhangra made up the rest of the show and brought a lot of energy to their performances. Between acts in this half of the show, the host for the evening, COAR member Madeline Moravitz, drew raffle tickets and the winners went up to the front of the auditorium to collect their prizes.

Ending the show was One Note Stand, a crowd favorite at UMW.

“My favorite performance was One Note Stand. I always love how creative their arrangements are,” said Junior education and history double major Dana Baumgartner.

The fourth Variety Show for COAR brought out a lot of UMW talent, and even more UMW support from a wide range of students, staff and community members.