Mamma Mia and *NSYNC tracks blasted from the basement of Saint Mary’s Student Center on Thursday at Karaoke Night hosted by the College’s Resident Hall Association (RHA) events committee.

The night was pajama themed, and girls gathered with their friends in slippers and matching pajama sets waiting for their turn to sing. In addition to karaoke, women could enter their names in a raffle for the chance to win a variety of prizes, junior and vice committee president Nicole McCaffery said.

The RHA events committee receives funds for all its different events, and the group decided to allocate a large sum of the money for Karaoke Night.

“We get a fund every year, and this semester we got a really big one, so we were able to get bigger gifts,” McCaffery said. 

The RHA events committee has hosted events like this in the past and Bella Escobedo, junior and RHA events president, said the group hopes these events bring the College’s community together.

“We love getting the community together, and we love having the girls bond and have a lot of fun,” she said. “Last year we did a similar Halloween karaoke event. This karaoke night is actually an annual event that the events committee puts on. In the fall we hosted Trunk or Treat, and we had the faculty bring their kids in for that.”

The events committee teamed up with RHA for the event with volunteers running the night.

“The RHA events committee and the other RHA executive board also comes and helps out,” McCaffery said. “They come and volunteer for the different shifts throughout the event, so they’ll help with the set-up and tear down and things in between.”

McCaffery said Karaoke Night required a significant amount of planning, but she enjoyed the preparations. 

“I think it’s fun to decorate and get people together,” she said. “Everyone has a certain job that they like to do for these events. Some people like to do the decorations, some people like to just brainstorm and come up with the ideas for what to do for the event, so it’s just fun to get everyone together and to create this event and to get a bunch of girls from the Saint Mary’s community to come together and hang out.”

McCaffery said the committee welcomed women who have attended their events in the past and women who haven’t had the chance to come to their events before.

“I came because I heard there was going to be karaoke and mozzarella sticks, but yeah we all came with friends and wanted to be a part of the social aspect of it all,” first year Lexi Trombly said. “We usually just hang out in our room, so we wanted to come out to an event.”

McCaffery said the RHA events committee will continue to foster community through campus-wide events.

“It’s like a sisterhood. You really have that and can meet new people — even though it’s a small campus, you meet new people every year,” McCaffery said. “We grow as an organization with the events, so we’re able to change them and improve every year, so I think it’s homier compared to other colleges. We’re like a family, and I really like that.”

Tags: Community, Residence Hall Association, Singing