Every year, Uni’s Executive Student Council hosts events to fundraise for a local charity over the span of a week. This series of events is called X-Week.
This year, X-Week is from April 7 to April 11. After voting, Student Council selected C-U at Home as this year’s organization, a local non-profit dedicated to assisting people experiencing homelessness.
X-Week started off on April 5 and April 6 with Big Show, a production put on by Uni students and theater department to help raise money for the selected organization.
“We basically have auditions, and then we also have a talent portion of [the show], where people can audition with instruments or magic,” says Big Show Director Ellix Simons. “We just put together the show from there. Students also write and submit scripts.”
This year’s Big Show featured a variety of scripts organized and produced by students, including pieces about popular culture, like “Twilight” and “The Phantom Menace.”
“I think it went really well,” says Simons. “We raised the most money that Big Show has in a while, so that’s good … I think people generally enjoy [the show].”
On April 7, Uni’s Executive Student Council hosted a money drive as another event for X-Week.
“Each class [representative] goes around to other students in their class, and they ask them to give money. The goal is to have your class get the most money, and then that class will get a prize. And this time it’s ice cream [or] popsicles,” says Executive Student Council Vice President Jonathan Chen.
Uni’s Executive Student Council organized an event on April 8 in collaboration with Uni’s National Art Honors Society (NAHS).
“They’re doing a matcha and crafts fundraiser,” says Chen. “You can buy matcha … and little crochet crafts and other stuff that NAHS has been making, so that’s pretty cool.”
On Thursday, April 10, Uni’s Executive Student Council will be selling concessions at the Uni girl’s Varsity and Junior Varsity soccer games against Bloomington Catholic Central.
The game will be at the Florida and Lincoln Playing Fields in Urbana, with Varsity at 4:30 p.m. and Junior Varsity at 6 p.m.
To wrap up X-Week, Uni’s Student Council will be hosting a dunk tank event after school on Friday.
“Everyone’s on rotation,” says Chen, referring to the teachers and students who agreed to be dunked. “So we rotate each person. If you want to select who exactly you want to dunk, you have to pay extra money.”
Chen’s goal for X-Week is to raise more than 2,000 dollars. He says the Big Show production raised 1,200 dollars.
“So, 2,000 is definitely feasible,” he says. “From last year, we decided that competition between classes actually helps a lot, so that’s why we’re testing out doing the dollar drive. In general, selling food works a lot, like if you sell food, you make a lot of money.”
