SAB brings 10th annual winter ball to the Tacoma waterway

UW Tacoma hosted their 10th annual winter ball at West of the Waterway event venue across from campus, located on Dock Street. The “Night on the French Quarter” themed extravaganza was organized by the Student Activities Board and is one of their main “Spirit and Tra­ditions” annual events. Last year, the theme of the winter ball was “Great Gatsby,” and was held in the Tacoma Paper and Stationary build­ing on campus. While TPS held its own and was a very pleasant experi­ence, it simply did not compare to this year’s location at the beautiful West of the Waterway event venue. A space suitable for fancy weddings and lavish celebrations, this year’s venue provided a space where at­tendees felt like they were truly at a formal ball.

As with years prior, the event kicked off at 8 p.m. and went on through the night, rounding off at around 11 p.m. Students filed in to partake in the festivities as the event carried on — snacking on various treats and dancing around the allur­ing decorated event. As usual, tick­ets were $5 for UWT students and $7 for non-student guests. As a yearly affair, the winter ball is a staple event for SAB and aims to create a space that gets students en­gaged on campus and excited for winter quarter.

Although located far from the true French Quarter in Louisiana, the 2019 winter ball did an impressive job of putting forth a New Orleans’ themed party — bringing the guests energy to life. Students and guests came prepared wearing exuberant gowns and dapper button ups. The dance floor came to its lively peak about midway through the event as attendees crowded around the DJ booth — bopping and singing along to various party anthems. When in need of a break, there was ample re­freshments and tasty treats available at the snack booth.

Prior to the event, Spirit and Tra­ditions Coordinator Quin Landry headed to SAB’s Instagram to help promote the event.

“There’s going to be a lot of great music, dancing and food,” Landry said. “Our team has been working really hard to put this together so we really hope to see you guys come out.”

The SAB accomplished just that. The Spirit and Traditions division of SAB succeeded in keeping alive an event that has brought joy and excitement to UWT during the dull­ness of winter quarter for ten years. Although attendance and student involvement is often a hurdle with events at commuter schools such as UWT, it was very clear that the guests who did attend left smiling and looking forward to next year’s winter ball.