The AHANA Leadership Committee (ALC) is putting on its first-ever themed ball to be held at the Westin Copley Hotel in downtown Boston on Saturday, Feb. 16, from 9 p.m. until 1 a.m. the next morning. The ALC Ball is the second of the committee’s two major programming events of the school year, following the fall’s ALC Boat Cruise, and is both larger and more formal than the cruise. The theme of the ball this spring is “Masquerade,” and the planning committee intends to hand out masks at the event-as well as unveil a larger surprise.
The ALC is asking attendees to find their own transportation to the event before the doors close at 10:30 p.m.-a relatively simple request, considering that the Westin Copley is located right by the MTBA Green Line’s Copley station. Buses back to BC after the event will be provided by the ALC.
After the success of the casino theme at the boat cruise in October, the planning committee decided that they wanted to bring something new to the ball. “There is a surprise in store for this event as well,” said Gabriela Mejia, A&S ’13, adding that the surprise would not be revealed until the ball itself.
“Our goal for every event that we’ve had, starting with last year-I saw a big push for this-is to get a lot more people to come, from different backgrounds,” Mejia said. “Socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnic backgrounds, even international students, we’ve been able to kind of tap into that pool too-because that’s the point of our events, is to get as many people as we can together and celebrate everyone’s backgrounds.” Denise Pyfrom, A&S ’14, added that she was pleased by the turnout at the boat cruise, and expressed a hope that the crowd at the ball would be similarly diverse.
A joint committee has been planning the ball since planning for last fall’s boat cruise commenced, but according to Pyfrom “heavy” planning began last November. Apart from Pyfrom and Mejia, the committee includes Esther Pacheco, A&S ’13; Alisha Wright, A&S ’15; Cristian Lopez, CSOM ’14; and Stanton Fields, CSOM ’14.
Pyfrom and Mejia both worked on last year’s ALC Ball, which was held at the Westin Copley for the first time. Pyfrom expressed her appreciation for the elegance and the spaciousness of the hotel: “It’s really interesting, because people get there, and everything’s so grand and professional, and they think, ‘Oh, the administration planned this event’-but no, it’s the eight of us who work really hard,” Pyfrom said. “We manage our budget to a T, and we really want everyone to have fun.”
The two also addressed the work that ALC has been doing to cut down on transports and alcohol-related issues at their events. “We pushed for this at the boat cruise, but we are holding the student body to a higher standard this year,” Pyfrom said. “As with any student government event, sometimes we have alcohol-related issues, so we’re really asking the students to be responsible, be smart.”
“We definitely saw a difference for the boat cruise,” Mejia said. “We didn’t have nearly as many alcohol-related issues as we did the year before. Even BCPD and the University administration have commended us on really pushing the student body to be more responsible and be accountable for their own actions.”
Tickets for the ALC Ball will go on sale on Monday, Feb. 4, and can be purchased online and picked up at Robsham Theater. Sales will run through that Friday, Feb. 8. About 800 tickets will be sold, and Pyfrom stressed the fact that tickets sell out quickly. “We definitely are going to go all out with the masquerade theme,” Pyfrom said. “We just want people to come with an open mind, prepared to have fun.”
