Things to do this Halloween: dress up in costume, eat candy and win tickets to see Common in concert.
Today at The Rock, members of Alpha Epsilon Pi and Platform-One Entertainment will hold a raffle for tickets to see rap artist Common headline a benefit concert in January. The raffle tickets cost $3 each or $5 for two, with proceeds going to the Chicago Public Schools.
Only 6 percent of students in the Chicago Public Schools system go on to graduate college, said Dan Harpaz, a Weinberg junior and one of the organizers of the event.
“It’s a very sad thing and we’re working to change that,” Harpaz said.
The raffle is part of a much larger event to raise money for the school district, Harpaz said. In addition to the concert, Platform-One will hold a silent auction of items from celebrities, athletes and musicians. All money raised by the raffle and concert will go to the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and the Common Ground Foundation, Common’s personal charity.
“It would be great if our benefit could help just that little bit to help bring (Chicago Public Schools) to a national level,” said Communication senior Andi Braunstein, another event organizer. “We’re trying to help out our city.”
The concert is meant to be a local event that brings the city together, Braunstein said, which is why the headliner will be ComMonday, a Chicago native.
“When we contacted ComMonday, he was more than game to sign right on to it,” Braunstein said.
Most of the items in the charity auction are also from Chicago-area celebrities, sports teams and bands like The Smashing Pumpkins and Fall Out Boy.
“Common is a very big rap artist, not only in Chicago but all over the world,” Harpaz said. “He won a Grammy. To be able to do this and to give back to the Chicago community is a great thing.”
But tickets to the concert in January won’t be the only prizes. Other options include free pizza from Papa John’s or Giordano’s, a make-up party for a woman and three friends at Red Door Spas, and a haircut and styling at Red Door Spas. The first place winner of the raffle will have the opportunity to pick the prize he or she wants.
Platform-One is using Northwestern as a testing ground because they would like to try charity raffles at other Chicago area schools, Braunstein said.
“I thought of the raffle idea because it’d be a really nice way to get college students involved,” Harpaz said. He added that people can give a smaller donation and still get a chance to win prizes.
“We decided it would be a really cool idea to raffle them off and raise money and awareness in a college setting,” Harpaz said.
Raffle tickets will be sold at The Rock from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the raffle will continue until mid-November. Tickets for the concert, which will take place Jan. 12 at the House of Blues Chicago, go on sale to the public on Dec. 1.
Reach Phillip Swarts at [email protected].
