A little more than 100 students donated more than $200 to Middle Way House on Friday.
The Indian Student Association, Muslim Student Union, Asian American Association and IU’s Oxfam America chapter came together once again to organize a night of ice skating at the Frank Southern ?Ice Arena.
Primarily conducted under ISA, the event began for MSU in the Oak Room of the Indiana Memorial Union.
Attendees from MSU were instructed to meet in the Oak Room an hour before the event began in order to determine drivers and passengers for the evening.
Students who were able to drive to the event were asked to offer rides to the students who needed transportation to the ?arena.
There were five drivers and at least four passengers in each car from MSU. When the students arrived at the arena, ISA had already set up tables and was welcoming students.
The cost of the entire event was $5 per student. This covered the skate rental of each student as well as their time in the ice ?skating rink.
With the first round of exams underway on campus and the semester’s pace picking up, MSU Social Chair Aamina Khan said the event was a nice way for students to relax and “take a break from all of that.”
She said it was especially nice to see people who did not previously know how to skate to try out the sport and get comfortable out on the ice.
All proceeds collected Friday night were donated directly to Middle Way House.
“We wanted the event to have some sort of philanthropic aspect to this event,” Khan said.
Haseeb Mohideen, MSU Co-President and ISA Social Chair, said the organizations chose to support Middle Way House because many board members are active volunteers at the shelter.
Mohideen said the shelter requires volunteers take an eight-hour training session before they are able to actually volunteer, which he feels deters people from helping Middle Way House more.
“We are really trying to counteract this and get more people to volunteer,” he said. “The Middle Way House always needs volunteers.”
He said the event had a great turnout this year.
From the time the students got to the arena to the time they were told it would be closing soon, MSU Treasurer Mohammad Sabeh-Ullah said there were always people on the ice and skating.
He said he was happy to attend the event because he had not been ice skating yet this season.
“It’s a fun event,” Sabeh-Ullah said. “And it’s a great way to raise money for the Middle Way House.”
The event was held last year and the year before, donating to different organizations each year, Sabeh-Ullah said.
He said he expects this to be an annually charitable event held by the four student groups.
MSU will host a game night at 7 p.m. Wednesday as its next event of the semester. Sabeh-Ullah said MSU Game Night will be a smaller-scale social event in comparison to ice skating Friday.
He said it is meant to be an event where MSU members can interact with each other by playing board games together.
Students are encouraged to bring games they would like to play as well as anyone else to MSU Game Night.
Location of the event is currently being determined and should be posted by Monday afternoon on their Facebook event, “MSU Game Night.”
