The Event

On the 20th of May, The University of Los Santos (ULSA) hosted a fundraiser for victims of violence on their own campus sports field. The event was organized mainly by a student by the name of Kaia Ilyina. A victim of violence herself, Kaia set out to make a change by raising money for charity and all proceeds from the event would be donated. The event was named aptly 'Treat People Fair', a clever play on words.

Above: The beautifully set up prize, a Dominator GTX.

Left: Chancellor Dunois, Nicholas Krueger (Student) and Doctor Whitman stand in front of Rose's Elixir's Right: Rose and Cecilia pose by their fairy mannequin. 

I attended the event in person and was met by colorful, fantastical decorations. First I was led by a white path walled in by hedges onto the field where a central circle of astroturf was displaying a sleek, black Dominator GTX, the prize of the raffle courtesy of Hawk's Motors. Surrounding this central area was a series of stalls intended to assist with the fundraising effort. I first arrived at 'Rose's Whispering Elixirs' a fairy themed stall with a number of drinkable treats or 'potions' for sale. Among the elixirs were a number of flavors with no indicator of what they'd taste like, such as; Elixir of Love, Elixir of Power, Elixir of Strength and... Elixir of 'Is Mayonnaise An Instrument?'. I decided to offer myself up as a veritable guineapig and trusted Rose not to poison me. Luckily I survived the taste test of a very sweet 'Elixir of Love'.

After tasting an 'Elixir of Love' I noticed Chancellor Dunois and Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity Vice President, Alexander Pickert, perched over a large tank of water. They'd set up the dunk tank so that students and the public could dunk the Chancellor into the water. After Dunois stepped away the young men from the Fraternity took the Chancellor's place getting dunked.

Among the stalls, one could also find food from Poseidon's Pearl and clothing items from Haute, as well as a cup knockdown game where one could win a number of prizes such as 

headphones and music players. There was no lack of things to buy or partake in at the event, all to a backing of music selected by T-Raw up on the stage.
 

Powerful Speeches On Violence

First on stage was Kaia Ilyina (Right), the mastermind behind the whole event. She introduced the fair and the raffle for the vehicle being sold by the Sorority girls of Alpha Delta Pi. Also being collected were donations, and a number of high profile individuals did arrive to donate such as Senator Brandenburg and CEO of Aurum Corporation, Doctor Emily Whitman. Chancellor Dunois even donated $100,000 to the cause herself. 

Kaia finished her introductory speech and was followed by a Mahatma Gandhi quote, spoken by the event's DJ, a student by the name of T-Raw "An eye for an eye will only make the whole world blind"

Following the initial speech, the crowd were treated to a colorful speech by Maxine Parker (Left), a young woman determined not to let her Tourette's get her down. "So while we’re all waiting for my next tic, let’s enjoy the suspense. After all, nothing says unity like collectively holding our breath, right?" said Maxine, beginning the speech in good humor.

She stated that she felt there was an "unexpected kinship" between living with her condition and facing the "unpredictable slings and arrows of casual sexism" the beginning of what would become a talk about violence against women. She continued to discuss how living with her condition had prepared her for the "randomness of life" especially as a woman in a male-dominated field. As an engineer she says she faces workplace sexism "I didn’t know there was a f**king beauty limit in the engineering handbook." Max said after describing a typical workplace remark.

"You know what's scarier than a sudden outburst of 'suck a d**k' in the middle of a calculus class? The masked men who've been turning up at our campus lately. Have you seen these idiots? They roll up in their rusty vans and bikes, looking like rejects from a low-budget horror film." According to Max, the campus has seen a fair share of trouble from outside the area of Richman. According to her these masked or unsettling individuals come to campus to harass women "The other day, one of them tried to intimidate me. He was doing his best Darth Vader impression, probably thinking he was the embodiment of menace." 

Max finished her speech by encouraging others to stand up against violence and to not be afraid to be bold or cause a scene in the face of "those masked a**hats".

I'd taken some time to buy raffle tickets with no real expectation of anything and then returned to the stage to watch the final speech and raffle-draw. Chancellor Dunois began the speech by thanking everyone for attending and quickly proceeded to the draw. The winner of the raffle was none other than Lola Pineda, the owner of Lola's in Vespucci. With the raffle out of the way the Chancellor expressed that it filled her with warmth to see so many come to support the cause

"This cause has personal meaning to me, as a active anti-violent activist, seeing so many individuals come together to support something like this— is simply amazing. It also fills me with joy as the Chancellor of this Campus to see the level of care and engagement all our students and faculty has to helping their fellow beaver— the planning event I attended a week before this was filled to the brim with ideas— and students who came with ideas and discussed openly to ensure this was properly planned— and executed.

It truly says something about our students and the Beaver spirit.. the call for help to build was answered by you all— and I cannot show my gratitude enough for your efforts. I am proud beyond belief for being your Chancellor and get to see such a positive event." She thanked all the students that made the event happen or assisted in any way before concluding her speech with a final "Go Beavers!"

The chancellor was followed up by Alyssa McCarthy, the Student President of ULSA. "I'd just like to talk a little about a matter extremely close to our heart, violence against women, violence which exists on a global scale." McCarthy began, moving on to discuss statistics "35 percent of all women will experience violence at the hands of their current or former partners in their lifetime, up to 70 percent according to some national studies. Around 650 million women alive today were married as children. Of those women, more than one in three were married before 15. 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation - the majority of girls are cut before the age of five.  Women and girls together account for 71 percent of all human trafficking victims detected globally, with girls representing nearly three out of every four trafficked children.

Together, we can change the harmful beliefs at the core of this problem. With your donations, we can fund educational programs to that what was learned can be unlearned. It is time for us all, women, men, girls, boys and key public actors to end violence against women and girls."

While I'd not expected anything from purchasing those raffle tickets, the winner of the raffle donated the vehicle back and the redraw following the event resulted in me winning the car. In total the event raised a whopping $951,000 for victims of violence, a positive end to an enjoyable evening. 

Go Beavers!