High school students gathered at Higher Ground on Monday evening, April 21 to dance at "Hip Hop for Hunger". The substance-free event was organized by Burlington High School (BHS) Student Council members Joya Smithayer, Erin Thomson and administrator Brian Williams.
Canned goods were collected at the door and admission was $12. The money and food raised were donated to Spectrum Youth and Family Services and the Burlington Emergency Food Shelf, Williams says.
Fund-raising for the hungry
“Erin and I called up a lot of sponsors to get raffle prizes” Smithayer says.
Several local businesses supported the BHS fund-raising effort.
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Students at Higher Ground dancing for a good cause. (Photo by Amedework Assefa) |
Champlain Valley Union High School, Mt. Mansfield High School, and BHS were among some of the schools involved in fund-raising for the event, Smithayer says.
“If students bring in canned food they will be entered into a raffle prize,” Thomson says. “We got a ton of businesses like Al’s French Frys, Hannafords Supermarket, Yankee Lanes, Palace 9 Cinema and more.”
The administration was not pleased with the original name the student council gave the dance: The Rave, which implied drug use, Smithayer says.
“When kids hear that there is a rave going on, it draws their attention and we wanted to get a huge audience,” Smithayer says.
The name of the event conflicted with Spectrum's mission.
“Spectrum is an organization that helps people with drug problems rebuild their life,” Smithayer says.
What started out as a small dance at BHS turned into a fund-raising event for Spectrum and the Burlington Food Shelf.
“While we were organizing this, we found out Supersounds was doing a similar event in the larger ballroom the same night and we had booked the smaller ballroom,” Williams says. “So Grant, owner of Supersounds, and I sat down and we decided to join forces and tried to reach out to more students than Chittenden County.”
Supersounds Entertainment is a large DJ firm in the New England area. They helped with the event by bringing in different high schools to participate, Williams says.
The event took six months of planning and convincing BHS administrators to fund the dance, Thomson says.
“We got involved with BHS in late December,” says Nicole Sullivan, an employee of Spectrum.
“The administration was hesitant since they have done a lot of dances this year,” Williams says. “We had to pitch it the right way; it’s a little bit outside of the typical student dance activity because we were reaching out to all area high schools and partnering with a local company.”
“So the school administration was beginning to feel fatigued,” Williams adds.
Spectrum will be receiving 40 percent of the profits, Thomson says.
Who said having fun can’t be productive?
BHS Student Council announced to the students there would be a 10:30 p.m. hip-hop dance contest that featured a $100 cash prize for the best dancer.
“They judged it, so we chose whoever got the loudest applause,” Allendorf says. “There was a 14-foot video screen with a live camera feed and bright light show in the ballroom. We have the strobe lights and played some music videos on the big screen.”
"It’s a great time to see kids that I know and respect having a great time,” Williams says.
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| BHS Student Council members and administrator Brian Williams at the event. (Photo by Amedework Assefa) |
They put a lot of work and effort into this and it turned out to be a great time for everyone, Williams adds.
“We played Sean Paul, Pitbull, Lil Jon, Kanye West and Ying Yang Twins,” says DJ Ryan Allendorf otherwise known as Rye-Dog. “We are mainly playing all hip-hop.”
‘Please Don’t Stop the Music,’ by Rihanna was played as the opening song.
“For the dance contest we played ‘Run it’ by Chris Brown,” says Allendorf. “A lot of the girls on the dance contest were from Mt. Mansfield Union High School and were on the dance team. They had a fun time and were going crazy out there.”
“I would be expecting a lot of crowd tonight, but a lot of students are out of town because of Spring Break right now,” Thomson says.
About 90 people showed up for the event, which was small compared to the plus 200 they expected, Allendorf says.
Not the average DJ
“I have been a DJ for four years and it’s a fun job, no complaints there,” Allendorf says.
Allendorf is a UVM sophomore and son of Grant Allendorf, owner of Supersounds.
“My Dad made up the name Rye-Dog for the event,” Allendorf says.
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DJs Rye-Dog and A Jizzle rock Higher Ground with a little Hip Hop for Hunger. (Photo by Amedework Assefa) |
Allendorf is a Mt. Mansfield alumnus and has been playing progressive hip-hop in area clubs, high schools and colleges.
“We definitely have to change our marketing strategy for next year,” Allendorf says. “We have to open it up to outside, maybe kids that are older than high school.”
“It was a small turnout, but the kids who were here definitely had a good time,” Allendorf says. “Hopefully it will go better next time and we will make money.”