Silver City, NM- Saturday, April 11 Western New Mexico University held its Annual Foundation Scholarship Gala. The Gala is a year long planned signature event, where the proceeds go towards scholarships for Western New Mexico University’s students. This year’s theme for the Foundation Scholarship Gala was A Venetian Masquerade. Guests dressed up in elegant attire and ate delicious food provided by Sodexo, as well as danced the night away to music provided by musicians Bryana Getchell on the violin and Elisabeth Greene and Deejay Aero on the viola.
During the event silent auction also took place with multiple items up for bids such as a variety of pottery, photography session gift certificates, a Persian rug, and many other items. Jodi Edens-Crocker said “ The entire event is hosted by the foundation and all the proceeds go towards the scholarships for students. We have been planning this event for about a year. My favorite part has been working with the students. They put so much effort into making this event happen. As a volunteer we have no staff and the students took on responsibility without even thinking about it. Without the dedication of the organizations and students that helped this event would not have happened.”
Students helped decorate, prepare the food, and wait tables. Jessica Dominguez one of the students who volunteered at the Foundation Scholarship Gala said “This event is raising money for students on campus. I helped set up and decorate and doing what I have been told. I learned a lot by volunteering at this event. It gave me a lot of opportunities. It is really unique and amazing how the community puts so much effort into the students’ education at Western.”
Dr. Joseph Shepard, President of Western New Mexico University was also among the guests to attend the event and said “This event is important because it raises scholarship money for our students. Our University doesn’t have very much scholarship money. In fact compared to the other universities we have the least amount available for students to be able to attend school and with the rising cost of education this event is very important to be able to provide that money. Another thing this does in addition to scholarship raising is it brings the community on to campus and it creates that wonderful relationship, these people that are dancing tonight they are part of our community and they get to say I want to be part of the [Western] community and help out students. This event cost about 15,000 to 20,000 dollars but we will probably raise about 50,000. A lot of it is donated time. The volunteers really make it happen.”
Every year the Scholarship Foundation holds this event and it provides many scholarships to students.
