Halloween Party with a Cause

Last Thursday, Oct. 27, Blagoevgrad Griffins and StartUp joined forces and organized a Halloween Party that took place in the ABF Sports Hall. StartUp is a club that specializes in the organization of different entrepreneurial events, which brings together experts and students who want to know how challenging the journey to have a reputable business actually is. The Griffins, on the other hand, is an officially registered American Football team which participates in numerous Championship series and promotes a healthy lifestyle on campus. 

The collaborated event included a variety of food and drinks, a photo booth, a professional DJ, Halloween-themed games, and many awards for those participating. The uniqueness of the party was that it had a charitable cause - to raise awareness about breast cancer. Both clubs charged for entrance by selling tickets for the event beforehand, as well as for the games during the party itself. All the profit was donated to the CancerCare Foundation.

CancerCare is a Bulgarian foundation that works to help cancer patients and their relatives. The team behind it, together with leading specialists, provides reliable information about oncological diseases and supports patients and their families by organizing events. During these events, not only are the important questions about the disease discussed, but also how the patient's path is traversed. They aim to direct the public's attention to prevention and regular preventive examinations, because the earlier an oncological disease is diagnosed, the greater the chance of its cure.

Kristian Petrov, the President of Griffins and Treasurer/Head of Sponsorship Department of StartUp, shared that the idea behind the event came when a member of one of the clubs suggested organizing a Halloween Party, as there hasn’t been one in the last few years. Since Griffins was also planning to do an event related to breast cancer awareness, they thought: Why not combine the two together? “We decided to use the inclination in people to party and turn it into something good,” says Kris. “Our goal is to encourage people, especially women, to do regular check-ups and if there is something – to be caught early and to be treated.”

Thus, in the three weeks that the two clubs had to organize the event, “it has been pretty much non-stop working from all departments.” With more than 300 people that bought tickets and came to the party, the effort of all the organizers paid off. “I’m extremely proud and happy of all the members from both clubs because everybody put in 100% effort in order for everything to happen,” Kris says. 

As for the party itself, the whole Sports Hall was decorated entirely up to Halloween standards, with some details related to breast cancer awareness, such as a ribbon made from pink balloons. The games, on the other hand, were four in total - ring toss, darts throwing, ping-pong toss, and a can toss game. “A lot of time and preparation went for these games,” says Kris, “We had a team of 10 people who worked at least a couple of hours a day, starting from Monday this week [Oct. 24], hidden in the basement of Skapto 3 and were just drawing, planning, cutting and designing the games.” Not only that, but whoever managed to succeed while playing received small awards, such as discount vouchers, bracelets, and many more. 

The prizes didn’t stop here. Anyone who bought a ticket for the event was immediately included in a raffle, where the award was AirPods second generation. Teona Sima, a sophomore student, says that “This party was the biggest and most creative one organized by clubs so far. The lights, the music, the games, the food… They got everything right!”

Ivaylo Kostov, artistically known as DJ Ivoratty, was the reason behind all the uplifting music and lights. In his latest Instagram post, he expresses his deepest gratitude for being invited to the event and for being part of the charitable cause. As he says: “Having a big heart does not weigh, it only helps!”