Group uses campus entertainment to help stop sex trafficking

Rescue the Girl, the organization which held its first event last May to raise awareness for girls and women in sex slavery worldwide, is holding its second major event on Dec. 2, the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, at 7 p.m. Artists for Abolition will be held in all three of the ballrooms of the Sam Rayburn Student Center. It will feature various musical acts and other forms of the creative arts to promote the issue of sex trafficking and help find a solution.

"The last event we did in October was more awareness, apathy," event organizer and leader of Christian fellowship group Chi Alpha Nathan Cole said. "This is actually a fundraiser, but it's also going to be an awareness event. This time it's more of a light-hearted way of addressing it through using performing arts."

Those performing are being sponsored by local businesses and are allocated a predetermined amount of slots. Bands, singer-songwriters, a dance team, and even Cricket City Improv troupe will be performing on one of the two stages made available.

"We have a few bands," Cole said. "The headlining band, Consider Us Rescued, is a five-piece band, really nice indie rock. Every member of the band wants to raise ninety bucks a-piece. We actually have more artists than we have time for."

During the event, a movie made by Rescue the Girl will be previewed. The film is a documentary of their trip to India, during which they went undercover to catch a glimpse of the world of sex slavery.

"We'll have an intermission about halfway through where we're going to show a trailer for the film, totally pre-released footage, and that will be the main thrust of the awareness portion," Cole said.

The event has only been in the works for four to five weeks, and organizers have been promoting for the past few weeks. Another way they are raising money is by raffling certain items given to them by sponsors, including an iPod.

"A number of companies have agreed to donate everything from time to monetary value items, like a one-hundred and fifty dollar car detail professionally done at a place in Greenville," Matthew Armstrong, another even organizer, said. "We have a couple of hundred-dollar gift certificates to very nice upscale restaurants in McKinney. The lucky winner is going to get an awesome prize."

The tickets are going for one dollar for one ticket, $5 for eight tickets, and $10 for twenty. Students can purchase them in the SRSC both before and during the event.

This is the biggest event since the organizations first fundraiser in May, and hopes are high that it will be their most successful.

"We always have high hopes," organizer Christopher Mullarkey said. "This is our first big event in eight months or so. Maybe, since we're starting this semester at the end, we'll have something better planned out for next semester."