Avant Garde Journal 9

 At 6:00 pm at Ringling College of Art and Design, a special event was took place and I was part of it. Every year around the middle of March, the school has a different theme for the Avant Garde. The Avant Garde is a private event that people who give money and donate to school for scholarships, come to celebrate, place a bid in the silent auctions, dance and give the Avant Garde Scholarship to a lucky Ringling Student. Every year is a big turn out and everyone that comes to it, always has a great time. What also is a thrill for the guests is to see what the president of the school does for his opening entrance. It's always a surprise to everyone. This year's theme is "Once Upon A Time" and everyone from the Ambassadors to the guests came in costumes of different fairy tale characters and characters from movies like Shrek.  The party planners used the outside environment for decorating the party. They brought a live white horse with Disney's Rapunzel riding him. In the trees, they hung up fairy tale characters like the Cheshire Cat, Tinkerbell, Peter Pan. The guest got to enjoy the fresh air outside under the tent. The volunteer students of Ringling were outside sketching the models and guests in their fairy tale costumes. Everything but the auction items were outside under the tent.

 Where I come in this is that I'm a student Ambassador for the school, for the second time. Ambassadors are the only Ringling Students that are allowed to this very private event. The school makes sure that no other ringling students sneak their way into the party to get to the bar. The school will plan trips to Disney or something like that, as a way to keep most of the students busy for the day. My Ambassador job for the night was three tasks. From 6:00 pm to 8:15 pm, I was a seater. A seater stays up front of the tent or near the entrance, and show people to their table. From 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm, me and most of the Ambassadors were needed for the Auction Item Closers/ Runner. During this time all the Ambassadors went around to the auction tables and drew the final line on the sheet to make sure that everything is final. Then we collect the items and bring them to another table where the guests come and collect what they won. The final thing was cleaning up everything. Six busy hours!!!

 Another thing that was nice about this event, is that you get people who want to know more about you, as a Ringling student. They always seem so interested in hearing how you found the school, how you like it and more questions like that. Our Ambassador leader Rachel, tells us that it's good to talk to the guests at the party, because maybe they will give a scholarship for us.

 This was a fun night and I'm glad that I'm an Ambassador this year and was able to attend this event. This year's themes is better than last years, which was Pajama Night. The reason why I see more of the guest having a fun time with this theme is because you can choose from a large range of fairy tales to dress up as.