Downtown students this week will partake in Homecoming events exclusive to their Phoenix campus, hosted by PAB Downtown.
Wednesday’s main event will be the Night of Gold dance at the Hyatt Regency. PAB Downtown will be donating all proceeds of the dance to the St. Vincent de Paul charity, which serves the homeless and poor families.
Students can attend the dance for free by bringing in three nonperishable food items, but can also get in by paying a $2 entry fee.
Journalism freshman Tania Mendes said she is excited to attend the dance because she thinks it can help bring students together from the Downtown campus.
“I think it’ll be a way for all of us to unite and see everybody be able to celebrate together,” Mendes said. “It’ll maybe give a bigger momentum boost to the Downtown campus and let people know that we’re trying to establish ourselves over here.”
Some other homecoming events include decorating contest, kickball tournaments and charitable service to the families of St. Vincent de Paul said Aldo Gonzalez, a PAB Downtown board member.
“We put boxes around the campus for the Hearts of Gold Service Drive to collect nonperishable food items,” said Gonzalez, a nursing sophomore. “We’ll count the number of cans at Festdevil on Thursday and announce how many we got.”
Festdevil will take center stage at Taylor Mall from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. where, PAB Downtown will announce the winners of contests earlier in the week as well as host events for students to participate in, like sumo wrestling and jousting, Gonzalez said.
On Friday, PAB Downtown will work with Taylor Place to build a float at the Downtown Float Building Party. At the building party students will get together to builds floats for the Homecoming Parade in Tempe on Saturday.
The events on Monday and Tuesday included the Hearts of Gold Service Project, where students served dinner to families at St. Vincent de Paul and Sparky’s Challenge, a kickball tournament at nearby University Park.
While nursing freshman Misheah Goudeau said she thought the dance at the Hyatt Regency sounded fun, she said she thinks homecoming is better suited for high school.
“I think homecoming for college is maybe not a good idea,” she said. “I understand the game, that’s fine, but as far as the dance and the activities that go with it: no.”
Gonzalez said the Night of Gold dance at the Hyatt Regency will not be like a high school dance. He added he hopes many students attend because it will be so different from other homecoming events.
“It’s going to be upscale. People can dress up, take lots of pictures and then afterwards can go eat or whatever. It’s going to be lots of fun,” Gonzalez said.
Reach the reporter at snrodri2@asu.edu.
