Toes tapped and piles of gift certificates and boxes of perfume were disarranged as Penn students danced between the exhibition tables during Kite and Key's silent auction in Houston Hall's Bodeck Lounge last night.
Though centered around the noble but grim nationwide battle against suicide, the flips and turns of the West Philly Swingers, the Pennyloafers' a cappella, the angsty-alternative sound stylings of Afterglow and the brass-fueled juggernaut that is the Mask and Wig band drew a large, enthusiastic and undeniably jolly crowd to the auction.
"I'm putting my rock-out skills toward a good cause," Mask and Wig bass player and College junior Alex Sankin said, as he prepared for a set that would have auction-goers up, active and singing along.
Indeed, Afterglow's policy of making "this silent auction not so silent" set the tone for the night, which saw over $1,000 pledged for items ranging from an autographed copy of Rudy Giuliani's Leadership and 76ers tickets to handmade bookmarks and Hugo Boss cologne.
But while Penn's longstanding commitment to suicide prevention shared the stage with the University's song-and-dance teams, the overall purpose of the evening -- to raise awareness and money for the cause -- did not get lost amidst the jumping and jiving.
Margot Hoerrner, executive director of the Greater Philadelphia Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, cited the efforts of Psychiatry Department Chairman Dwight Evans, as well as campus mental health awareness group Open Minds as positive steps in confronting and combatting suicide.
"Forty years ago, people weren't talking about cancer, 20 years ago people weren't talking about AIDS," she said, noting that suicide, a leading cause of death in the United States, has yet to be openly and aggressively addressed.
"It's not a glamorous topic," Kite and Key President Rory Levine concurred. "If it doesn't affect you or your party schedule, you ignore it."
Remembering the suicides on Penn's campus last year, Levine said he saw Kite and Key's success last night as an encouraging sign.
"Beyond the immediate monetary success here, I really hope that this has, on some level, raised awareness of... the necessity of suicide prevention research in the twenty-first century," he said.
