Before midnight Monday, five Delta Zeta pledges took the stage at Prairie Moon, 1502 Sherman Ave., for Dance Marathon’s annual Date Auction.
Once bids hit $71.62, the girls started to dance for the audience.
“They’re fresh, they’re pure,” prodded DM emcee Adam Welton, a Communication sophomore. “Let’s corrupt them!”
For $80, the highest bidder took home an afternoon of laser tag and Kafein, 1621 Chicago Ave., with the girls.
The date auction made DM the first student group to hold a bar night open to people 18 and older under Evanston’s revised liquor ordinance.
The law prohibits people under 21 from staying in Evanston bars past midnight, but an amendment passed in January allows for some exceptions. Individuals and groups can hold up to 40 charitable events open to guests 18 and older in Evanston each year. The law bans student fundraisers for a year at bars that have had three infractions of underage drinking.
DM collaborated with Prairie Moon, the city and Northwestern to obtain approval for the event. NU approved a contract between DM and Prairie Moon and sent it to Evanston City Council. After City Council approved the contract, it went back to both NU and Prairie Moon, according to DM Special Events co-Chairman Scott Glazier, a Weinberg senior.
Prairie Moon checked IDs at the entrance of the back room where the date auction was held. A bouncer distributed wristbands to patrons over 21 years of age, and those under 21 had X’s drawn on their hands.
The law and amendment haven’t really changed the way the bar handles student fundraisers, said Mike Hoyland, Prairie Moon’s manager.
“We always have security, and we’ve carded everybody,” Hoyland said. “I guess the city just feels more informed.”
Hoyland said he doesn’t think the law will cut down on underage drinking. He doesn’t expect to see a decrease in students trying to use fake IDs, he said.
“People do what they do regardless,” he said.
Weinberg senior Shaili Rajput, executive co-chairwoman for Special Olympics, said the new amendment will have little effect on the group’s current fundraising efforts.
“In the past we’ve had the most success with The Keg,” Rajput said. “But in recent months, we haven’t been able to do bar nights (there). We have just come up with creative ways (to fundraise) and we haven’t been focusing on bar nights as much as we used to. We’ve been successful with other ways.”
However, Rajput said Special Olympics hasn’t ruled out using a bar night for future fundraisers.
“We don’t have anything planned for the quarter, but we’ll definitely consider it,” she said.
The new amendment benefits DM’s fundraising efforts because bar night events are unsuccessful if they’re held too early in the evening, Glazier said.
“It just seems that it’s the NU mentality to not go out until 9 or 10,” he said. “People are busy. They have classes and Mini Courses. Northwestern is an active campus. And if they go out at 10 or 11 that would only leave an hour (at our event.)”
Many students at the event agreed. Communication sophomore Maureen Johannigman said holding bar nights later would encourage more people to go to student fundraisers.
“A lot of people don’t go out in time to be out by midnight,” Johannigman said.
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