On Saturday night over 200 Whitworth students traveled to the historic Bozarth Mansion and Retreat Center, to attend “Second Chance Prom.” The event was sponsored by ASWU. The Bozarth Mansion was purchased by Gonzaga University in 1963 and is now an event center.
Sophomores Scott Bingham and Madeline Misterek enjoyed the ambiance of the location and the dancing.
“It’s wonderful here, I love the vintage feel of the mansion, and we got to see the sunset right when we got here,” Misterek said. “There are lots of great people, and it’s a fun place because we even got to go outside and dance too.”
The two especially enjoyed getting to dance to the Wobble and the Stanky Leg.
“I like the wobble because there’s already moves, so I don’t have to come up with my own, and I am not very good at dancing so that’s nice,” Misterek said. “We even looked up a YouTube video and our instructor, Randy was his name, taught us how to do the Stanky Leg.”
“We were actually practicing the Stanky Leg just for this night, so we could get our groove on,” Bingham said. Bingham and Misterek both hope to see this event or events like it continued on in the future.
“Its nice to have it off campus, but still close by,” Misterek said.
Freshman Christina Locatelli also attended the dance and enjoyed being at such a unique location with so many people.
“I think it has been fun, there are a lot of people here. I was surprised,” Locatelli said. “It’s beautiful, it’s a great location, gorgeous view and gorgeous building.”
The event was planned by several dorm senators and ASWU special events coordinator Bre Lyons. Sophomore and Boppell senator Norma Heredia helped plan and set up for the event.
“It’s so great to see the students having fun, looking beautiful, and especially seeing how the year is going to be over and finals are coming up and the stress level is soon going to go up,” Heredia said.
The historic location and the free event attracted many students both from on and off-campus.
“The minute I walked in, all I heard was positive reviews,” Heredia said. “I am just glad to see everybody all dressed up, and looking happy, because that was the original intent.”
Another student integral in planning the dance was sophomore Ballard senator Rachel Henson.
“We realized that students really like having bigger dances and off campus events, especially the on campus students, because they don’t always have opportunities to get off for Whitworth-sponsored events, so a whole group of ASWU dorm senators came together and decided it was something we wanted to do,” Henson said.
There have been off-campus dances in recent years, but this is the first time in three years that “prom” was brought back and the first time having a Whitworth event at the Bozarth Mansion.
Thanks to the work of the dorm senators and Lyons, the event was subsidized by ASWU and was free of charge for students.
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