Suitcase Party will still send students on trips around the world, but almost every other part has a new look.

The students behind Northwestern’s second-largest fund-raising organization, now in its ninth year, have introduced new events and dedicated more time to the group’s charity. They hold high hopes for the party’s new format.

“Our goal is to make the party more interactive than it has been in the past,” said Molly Harnischfeger, party committee co-chairwoman.

“Last year, a lot of people described the party as a bad middle-school dance,” said Harnischfeger, a Weinberg sophomore. “Now it’s more of an amusement park.”

The party, which will groove from 8 p.m. to midnight tonight in Patten Gym, concludes a year of raising funds for the Children’s Place Association, an organization that works with HIV- and AIDS-infected children and their families.

Tonight’s gala will be the first Suitcase Party with a theme – Hollywood and the Academy Awards. Partygoers entering the gym will encounter Suitcase Party’s own Walk of Fame, featuring handprints from the Children’s Place.

Stressing student interaction, Suitcase Party has abandoned its prior focus on bringing in B-level celebrities, Harnischfeger said.

The night will feature two student bands and will be hosted by two student emcees, Speech sophomore Laura Klivans and Speech junior Devon Jackson.

There will be plenty of activities for every partygoer, said Casey Clark, the party committee’s other co-chairman.

“There will be places to eat with free food from restaurants all over Evanston, said Harnischfeger, an Education junior. “You can go dance, get a massage, get a caricature drawn or go read a display about the charity.

Another major change this year is for the first time, all seven tickets will be awarded to competition winners. Three contestants in a “Price is Right”-style competition will be chosen by raffle for six of the trips.

“The point of the party is to entertain the crowd,” she said. “In the past, people were just waiting around for the trips to be given away.”

The destinations include Los Angeles, Reno, Nev., and Europe, for seniors only.

The winner of the seventh trip will be the winner of two other competitions: a freeze dance contest and the “guess how much candy is in the suitcase” contest..

After paying the $9 fee at the door, which includes one raffle ticket, everything inside is free except for additional raffle tickets that sell for $1 each. More than 100 smaller prizes will be given away leading up to the seven trip giveaways.

“There are so many prizes that we’ll be giving something away every few minutes,” Clark said.

Everything at the party, including the plane tickets and hotel rooms, is donated. All of the proceeds from the night’s events benefit Children’s Place.

Although Suitcase Party lost several of its corporate sponsors during the year because of the economic slump, the organization’s board hopes some of its new fund-raising endeavors, such as a date auction, spaghetti dinner and 5K run, were successful enough to compensate.

“We chose Children’s Place over other worthy charities because it gave us so much opportunity to get involved,” said Erin Burke, outreach committee co-chairwoman.

Following an intensive training program, the 10-member outreach committee went to Children’s Place twice a week throughout the year, said Burke, an Education sophomore.

“I think the best thing about Children’s Place is that the kids are not stigmatized in any way, she said. “When you go down to volunteer, you’re not working with kids with AIDS, you’re working with kids.”

Unlike previous years, Burke said, the outreach committee involved other Suitcase Party committees in the charity through several events. After starting with a fall carnival in Wicker Park for infected children and their families, the executive board will conclude its term in May when it brings the children to campus for a picnic.

Executive co-chairman Tyler Milfeld said these volunteer experiences were the year’s highlights.

“What stands out most about this year’s Suitcase Party is the really close connection we had to the charity,” said Milfeld, a Weinberg senior. “We’ve done a lot of volunteering and put a lot of heart into the Children’s Place. Bottom line, that’s what Suitcase Party is all about.”

The group raised $40,000 for the Starlight Children’s Foundation last year, but organizers won’t know this year’s total until the end of the party.