White paper “XOXs” littered the industrial gray carpet of the Clarke Recital Hall during last Friday’s “A Shot at Love” date auction.
The date auction is an annual event hosted by the Asian American Student Association, whose proceeds go to different charities every year. Half of last year’s earnings – about $1,000 – went to the American Heart Association. This year, a portion of the proceeds will be granted to the American Cancer Society. The rest of the money will be funneled back to fundraising for the AASA’s numerous cultural events in hopes of unifying the Asian community.
One of the features of the date auction included a game of suck-and-blow. The winner, Khiem Nguyen, was blindfolded as he waited on stage for Kitty to give him his “reward.” To his dismay and the noisy laughter of the audience, his reward was Keith Preciados, a University of Miami student, who ripped through the paper heart and danced across the stage.
The night’s festivities did not stop there. After every challenge, a series of auctions took place, among which some of the more colorful performances of the evening took place.
Garbed in their traditional Raas costumes, Janki Amin and Roma Mehta performed a duet neo-modern Indian dance.
Miss Miami herself, Tera Szczepanski, sang Miss Saigon’s Last Night of the World in her crown and decorative sash.
UM’s very own Mag Ka Isa dance troupe broke it down to Daft Punk’s Technologic.
There were off beat routines like Khiem Nguyen’s beat boxing, David Goldberg’s flamboyant strip tease, and a group of FIU students who break danced to the beat of the audience’s claps.
As the auction came to an end, those that got auctioned off exchanged phone numbers with the person that bought them with the intention of setting up a date. And who knows, maybe love really awaits those lucky couples.
Ivette Figueroa may be contacted at i.figueroa@umiami.edu.