After endless banner making, facebook spamming, and rainbow-ifying, OPEN’s Week of Awareness went off with a minimal number of hitches and horror stories. Alright, well no real horror stories, but the realization that you’re out a sound tech before a benefit concert is mildly gut-wrenching. Ahem, let me recap:

Monday kicked off the week with our annual Rainbow Day. We chalked up Clark’s symbolic Red Square with rainbows, posted flyers all over the place, and generally celebrated with colorful glee. We had a tie-dye session midday, sharing the wonder of rainbows with the campus.

“Live Spree or Die” was the motto of Clark’s annual Spree Day on Tuesday—an event under the guise of a carnival-esque festival with moon bounces, concerts, and free food when in reality it’s generally known as the one day of the year that it’s appropriate to be wasted before 9a.m. for Clark students (who don’t normally wake up before eleven, mind you). Events are a no-go on Spree Day, so OPEN settled to help with volunteer work during the day. Made the club some dough, but that 5a.m. wake up call for set-up was not the most welcome of greetings.

On Wednesday we invited the wonderful Pastor Judy from Worcester’s LGBT Asylum Task Force to come speak with some asylees. We would be raising funds for them through t-shirt selling and a dance/concert later in the week, so I thought it would be nice to but a few faces to the fundraising effort. Please learn more about (and donate to!) this great cause at: http://hpc.homestead.com/LGBT-Task.html.

We continued the festivities on Thursday, showing the queer classic flick But I’m a Cheerleader. Earlier in the day I hosted my own take on a tea party: queers talking about the use of campus organizing over some black tea. It was insightful, relaxed, and really helpful for my future work on this campus (and involved no gun-toting Palin worshippers).

Friday, of course, was Day of Silence. We tabled in the university center with ribbons and stickers, advertising for or breaking the silence later than night. Our Night of Noise hosted four Clark bands and some music in between for dancing. We collaborated with Students Advocating Safe Choices, and they provided mocktails for the party-goers. We raised around $450 for the Task Force!

It was a long week with long days (landing me two homework assignments and five lab hours in debt to my professors!), but I’m happy to say that the results were most definitely worth it. :)