Jessica Luton
More than 100 students donned in purple gloves gathered on Georgia College & State University’s front campus Tuesday afternoon ready to dance their hearts out for a video that has a chance to earn the Baldwin County Relay for Life organization $5,000.
Jacquie Beute, a senior psychology major at Georgia College, organized Tuesday’s event as a culmination to many months of work and filming for a video that will be entered into a national contest.
Beute, who works at the Georgia College GIVE Center, has been filming video footage at various campus events for the last two months and Tuesday’s dance performance on the front lawn will be compiled with other footage, edited and set to music before it is entered into the “Purple Glove Dance Contest.”
The concept for the video originated from the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Ore., when they created a video deemed the “Pink Glove Dance” to raise awareness at the hospital and in the community about breast cancer.
The concept caught on, as the video quickly made its way to computer screens across the country and around the world, and now a “Purple Glove Dance Video Contest” is being held to raise national awareness for the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life.
Beute’s decision to really get involved and spearhead the project resulted from her own goal of earning a volunteer service award, said Georgia College GIVE Center Director Kendall Stiles.
“We work with the National Presidential Service Award, an award that students can earn if they do 100 hours of volunteer work within 12 months,” she said. “Jacquie is one of our staff members and she wanted to get the award. She was trying to earn the award and wanted to find something that she could put her teeth into and put her passion into.”
A couple of months ago Beute began shooting footage throughout campus — at basketball games, with the Greek community and with many faculty, staff and students, said Stiles.
“This is the culmination,” said Stiles. “She’s been shooting footage for the last month or so, and she’s probably had close to 1,000 people involved in the footage.”
Now that all of the footage has been shot, it will be compiled and edited before being entered into the contest and posted on YouTube by March 1.
Once the video is posted and entered into the contest, viewers will have until July 31 to watch the video and help Baldwin County Relay for Life earn the $5,000 prize.
“People will watch it and the deadline is July 31 and whoever has the most hits will get $5,000 for their local Relay for Life,” said Stiles. “We’ll have it linked to as many pages as possible.”
The event has also been a fun way for students to get involved with a worthy cause, said Stiles.
“We watched the Pink Glove Dance video online, and you could just tell how much fun they were having,” she said. “It’s great way to talk about Relay for Life and the causes, and it’s a lot of fun for the students.”
The GIVE Center and the Georgia College community is proud of Beute’s hard work, said Stiles.
“She did most of the work, as far as getting it all set up,” she said. “We’re very proud of her for what’s she’s done. It goes toward a good cause.”
To view the video once it has been posted on YouTube, become a fan of the GCSU Purple Glove Dance Facebook group or look for a link at www.unionrecorder.com.
For more information on the contest, visit www.purpleglovedance.com.
To view the original “Pink Glove Dance Video,” visit www.youtube.com and search for “pink glove dance.”
