MOST OUTSTANDING NEW EVENT NOMINEE
University of southern mississippi vietnamese student association
Lanterns to the top
Provide a detailed description of the event and the population it served. Details MUST include: date of event, number of participants, program purpose (goals, objectives, etc.), use of resources (finances, community support, etc.), marketing techniques, and amount fundraised.
Lanterns To The Top is a new event created for our organization's members, the Gulf Coast region, and the local community to come together and flourish new relationships and bonds. Approximately 70+ people attended this event due to our marketing methods. When picking a location, we wanted it to be accessible to the GC region so we chose the Biloxi Beach behind Edgewater Mall. In addition to opening up to the GC region, we have reached out to high schoolers throughout Biloxi and locals that lived in the area to join and participate. We advertise by reposting and sharing on our social media, word of mouth, and reaching out to our alumni chat. During the new event, everyone had an opportunity to release a lantern and the board also offered s'mores and weiners as food with refreshments. When planning the event, we made sure that we went through precautions if we were cleared to release the lanterns as well as retrieve a bonfire permit to start a fire to keep everyone warm.
What inspired your organization to create this new event?
We wanted to create a new traditional event that is not common in the south and allows people to bond together. This year was the first time USMVSA attended the beach since Beach Bash 2020, so we also wanted to release a lantern together with those who attended Beach Bash to commemorate a fallen VSA member.
What efforts were used to motivate and involve the organization's members?
To motivate our members, we implemented member points for our attendees. Additionally, we offered carpooling to our members due to the location not being on campus. We also provided them food and pictures for them to appreciate and make core memories with one another.
Did the organization overcome any challenges that arose while planning and implementing the event? How?
We struggled with scheduling the event due to other major events being pushed back. We ended up scheduling it during the last Saturday of our spring break so that our members would not have to worry about school over the weekend and enjoy the event freely. Due to weather complications, some lanterns failed to float up to the sky so the eboard offered them a free lantern to try again. The weather was very windy, which made it difficult for us to light lanterns with normal lighters. We originally bought normal lighters and one blow torch to light the lanterns, but the normal lighters were useless due to the wind. Therefore, the eboard had to rush to the local store to acquire more blow torches. Additionally, there were some challenges in looking at the limitations of lighting lanterns on the beach. Luckily, we continued to stay in contact and were informed that we were allowed to go through with the event. There was also a distribution of food, because there were not enough skewers available, we encouraged people to share skewers so they could bond and roast their weiners together.
