Live music is not brought to campus often. Usually, it only makes its appearance during Live and Local, but this year, the ambassadors decided to do their own concert to raise funds for a local charity called Youth Futures and for their own program.
“The ambassador presidency decided this year to do more outreach and a little bit more within our community, to be leaders on campus more than just tour guides,” Dahlin Lutz, advisor to the ambassadors, said.
The ambassadors do a service project every year as part of their organization. This year they took a different approach than they have done in the past.
“One of our presidency members, Katie Walker, loves to do events, so she wanted to switch it up from what we usually do, to do an event on campus to help a local charity,” Myles Beatty, a senior communications major from Ogden and Utah Tech ambassador, said.
Bands and singers such as Citrus!, Logan Rawson and Cardinal Bloom sang at the concert. Students sat on the grass and listened to the different bands play. There were food trucks present at the event and a booth selling band merchandise.
A portion of the funds from the food trucks and ticket sales went toward funding the ambassador program and Youth Futures, while the merchandise sales went strictly to the bands.
“[Youth Futures] is a house with troubled teens that gives back to them and has resources for [the teens],” Beatty said.
The program functions as a homeless shelter. It provides teens access to clothing, food, hygiene items, laundry facilities and computers. The first shelter in this program was founded in February of 2015 by Kristen Mitchell and Scott Catuccio in Ogden. The shelter in St. George was opened in 2018. It is available to all teenagers 12-17 years old. No one is turned away, regardless of circumstance.
Students at the event enjoyed the opportunity to listen to live music. Student tickets were only $5, so it gave them an opportunity to discover Utah artists for a cheaper price than usual concert tickets. The event was located in the Encampment Mall, so the concert was easily accessible to students.
“I think it’s good engagement for our students,” Katelund Mann, a junior nursing major from Las Vegas, said. “It’s on campus, so everyone has access, and it’s cheap.”
The event helped the ambassadors advertise their program further as an on-campus presence beyond tour guides and allowed them to fund the important things they do for the campus.
Lutz said: “I think it [was] a great opportunity to support an essential student organization which is the ambassadors. Utah Tech is experiencing some of the fastest growth out of any university in the state on the West Coast, and a huge part of that growth the ambassadors are encouraging through their interaction with prospective students. By supporting an organization that is so closely tied to the growth of the university, people are supporting that growth.”
Attending events like this charity concert provides opportunities for students to support organizations that are crucial to campus and give back to the community.
