Half the proceeds from a skate and costume party at Skate Country on Tuesday night went to benefit a local LGBTQ community center.
ASUA Pride Alliance hosted the second Queer Skate Night to raise money for Wingspan, a Southern Arizona LGBTQ community center, and to give students an opportunity to make new friends and mingle. Admission cost $4 and half the proceeds went to Wingspan. The proceeds raised totaled $293.
A costume contest for the scariest, funniest and most creative Halloween costumes was also held, and Pride Alliance hosted a booth with information on upcoming events in the LGBTQ community.
Queer Skate Night was created last year by Pride Alliance, said the club’s social events chair Greg Daniels. The idea was to combine Halloween and skating to make a fun event anyone could attend.
“We initially knew that we wanted to do an actual skate event,” Daniels said. “But I think for the purposes of visibility, we wanted to add ‘queer’ into the title to show that it is a queer event. But obviously anybody can come.”
Chance Mora, the club’s co-chair for education, said that last year about 75 to 100 students attended the event and this year about 50 people showed up.
Students encouraged friends to attend the event and support the LGBTQ community. Stephen Stern, a molecular and cellular biology and psychology sophomore, said he heard about the event when his friend forwarded him an email about it, and decided to bring along Bianca Taylor, a psychology sophomore.
Though the event revolved around skating, attendees didn’t have to know how to roller-skate, and many just spent the evening mingling and eating.
Talented skaters, like creative writing junior Samantha Campas, also came to support the event.
“I’m on the U of A roller derby team and one of the other girls actually suggested to us to come,” Campas said. “I think this is a great thing to do. It’s fun to be able to show your support for something like this even if you’re not in the actual group.”