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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 10, 1995)
utiful S! a pleasij pes anc.j ie locale the te com:: WH The 1995 unity festival brought over 1,000 students togeth er Saturday afternoon to celebrate the diverse groups and cultures that make up the Texas A&M community. irate I® Roger Hsieh/ The Battalion 'op: The crowd gath- | ers to celebrate unity Saturday at Whoop- stock. | Above: Angela Hino josa of Ballet Folklori- co Celestial performs | the jarabe tapitio. At right: Erica Bell, a junior Biochemistry major, paints a rain bow on the arm of Margaret Gordon, a junior genetics major. lion i )r l s ediW or litor isaW^I ibe Go^ By Gretchen Perrenot The Battalion any hearts, hands and minds came to gether for one purpose Saturday at Whoopstock Unity Fest ’95. Over 1,000 people gathered on Simpson Drill Field to celebrate unity while learning about the diverse cultures represented by the A&M student body. This year had the largest turnout for Whoopstock yet. The theme for the third annual festival was “Unity: Today Our Campus, Tomorrow Our World.” The programs lasted from noon to 6 p.m. and offered a variety of musical acts, dance perfor mances, sports and foods. Whoopstock Unity Fest was originally celebrat ed in 1992 in response to a Ku Klux Klan demon stration that was held in College Station. The event was organized to draw attention away from the KKK rally and discourage protesters from con tributing to the publicity of the KKK. Veselin Skendzic, a former A&M student, said holding Whoopstock in response to the KKK was a good idea. “No other measure would have worked,” he said. Elizabeth and Veselin Skendzic, both class of 1994, are examples of unity among A&M cultures on campus. Elizabeth is originally from Mexico and Veselin is origi nally from Croatia. The Skendzics met each other while studying at A&M and later married. They now live in Wisconsin and attended Whoopstock Unity Fest as a part of revis iting A&M. Abby Cook, chair of the Whoopstock Council, has been on the Whoopstock staff all three years and said Whoopstock was successful overall and without any dis appointments. This is the first year for Whoopstock to be an official student organization, she said. “We really don’t have any outdoor celebrations or ‘spring flings’ here,” Cook said. “People kept wanting another Whoopstock every year and this fills that void.” Cook said the main purpose of Whoopstock is to pro mote unity on campus. “Our immediate goal is to promote unity among the different groups and organizations on campus,” she said. “We have a lot of people who have a ‘my group, your group’ attitude. This may give them the chance to see groups they haven’t seen before. “We want to break the stereotypes people have of dif ferent organizations. Taking into account what makes us different and appreciating it is important.” Cook said the 30 people on the committee con tributed greatly to the success and no last-minute prob lems came up. “We’re all really excited. It helps that we’re all here to have fun and that there is no stress,” Cook said. “We had the number of people show up that we had hoped for.” Some of the other major attractions during the fest were the bands and dance performances. The International Music Club performed “Arabian Nights.” The group encouraged the audience to dance. About 35 people, many of whom had never heard Arabic music before, stood up and danced in front of the stage in belly dancer style. Sleiman Hamaoui, president of the International Music Club, said this is the group’s second year to per form at Whoopstock. “The first time we came to show support for the commu nity as a whole when the KKK was here,” Hamaoui said. “We’re all the same, no matter what our differences.” Bobby Hall, of Bobby Hall’s Ice Cold Blues Band, said his group enjoys performing for special events. “It’s the most fun I’ve ever had without getting paid,” Hall said. Other musical performances were by Voices of Praise, a gospel choir; Three-Amigos Guitar Club; Lewis, an alternative band; Chris Wells and the Texas Edge; and The Boxcar Poets, another alternative band. Fade to Black, a student dance organization, had the au dience whooping with their performance of the Tootsie Roll. Darchele Smith, president of Fade to Black, said the group came to Whoopstock to show that the group does promote unity. “A lot of people don’t think so because all of our members are African-American,” Smith said. “We’re re ally open to anyone, it’s just that historically that’s who tries out.” Kappa Alpha Psi performed a step show with canes as props. Vince Allen, president of Kappa Alpha Psi, said per forming at Whoopstock was one of the fraternity’s ser vice projects. “This is a good chance to celebrate diversity,” Allen said. “The Department of Multicultural Services has al ways been a supporter of our endeavors and we wanted to give back to them.” Allen said Texas A&M University should support and promote this type of cultural experience more often. Germaine Hawkins, programs chair for Kappa Alpha Psi, said Whoopstock was the perfect opportunity to show the campus the diversity and talent that the African-American culture has to offer. Sharia Vaughn, member of the Aggie Wranglers, said this is the Aggie Wranglers’ third year to perform at Whoopstock. “We do this every year to support the diversity Of the university,” Vaughn said. Ballet Folklorico Celestial, a Latin American folk dance group, performed a series of dances with som breros and full, fluttering skirts. Each song and dance represented a state in Mexico. Maricela Ortiz, member of Ballet Folklorico Celes tial, said they wanted to help out by performing. “We wanted to add to the cultural experience,” Ortiz said. “We’re also selling pan de polvo cookies, which are traditional Mexican wedding cookies.” Participants in Whoopstock had a variety of foods to choose from including crawfish, sold by King of the Roadhouse, an Aggie student-owned bar on Northgate. Ray Prewitt, co-owner of the bar, said he was encour aged to participate by friends on the Whoopstock staff. Prewitt said he believes the turnout would have been even larger if there were not so many other programs going on around campus and the town. Another Whoopstock attraction with many partici pants was the volleyball tournament sponsored by Evian and Texas A&M Recreational Sports. The three volley ball courts were in constant use throughout the day. Many people at Whoopstock took advantage of the sunny and breezy weather by playing all sorts of sports: Frisbee, hackey sack, football and baseball. Some people took off their shirts to catch some rays and others brought their dogs and ferrets along with them. At times over the course of the afternoon, people stood up and danced or went on stage and did impres sions of Forrest Gump. To boost the bonding spirit, the Whoopstock emcees had the audience members turn to the left and right and give the person next to them a hug, even if they did not know the person. Heidi Feller, a sophomore community health major, said Whoopstock is a good way to bring the campus to gether and unite everyone. “It doesn’t matter who you are,” Feller said. “Every one can come out and be themselves.” Louis Migliaccio, a sophomore biomedical science major, said he came to Whoopstock to see all the differ ent events. “Most of the major organizations are represented here,” Migliaccio said. “There are many different types of food, music and people.” ° 5 P r1 f The groups that performed at Whoopstock Unity Fest ‘95 included kup , r 'j the Aggie Wranglers (above), Fade to Black (right) and Bobby jj50P f ' l | Hall’s Ice Cold Blues Band (far right). 1