The event will benefit the Student Veterans Association at UH. | Courtesy of SVA-UH
With Independence Day right around the corner, Americans are taking the time to thank former military members for fighting and protecting the freedom that many countries in the world lack. The Student Veterans of America at UH is participating in a way to get veterans and non-veterans alike to support military members and their families.
Strictly Street Salsa, a Houston dance company, is hosting Live! Texas’ 1st Salsa Social and Afro-Latin Dance Workshop, a fundraiser benefitting SVA-UH and the Salsa y Salud outreach program.
The benefit will be held Saturday, July 5 and will include various special guests, including dance workshops from Cuban dance instructor Wilfredo Guilbiac Rodriguez and Jorge Orta ‘Cro Cro’ of Venezuela.
“It is mainly just going to be for anybody who wants to go to learn how to salsa dance if you don’t know how to,” said geology senior and SVA-UH special events coordinator Mark Ferguson. “It’s just for people to have a good time and get to know one another.”
SVA-UH just recently opened its doors in January and is trying to gain more members from incoming veterans and dependents of veterans. This salsa social is meant to be “a great opportunity for community involvement and [to] show support to local veterans,” said senior electrical engineering major and SVA-UH president Artemio Villarreal.
On Get Involved, they are up to about 100 members and are actively seeking more.
“It is important for all students regardless of military affiliation to support events such as these,” Villarreal said. “We all can better support and understand our student-veteran population on campus.”
The money raised from this workshop will fund more SVA-UH fundraisers and raise membership.
“We are going to get all the incoming students together with the students that have been here for a while,” Ferguson said. “That way they can have that camaraderie that we are used to from being in the military.”
Overall, SVA-UH is meant to be an organization that allows incoming veterans to form a network among their peers, whether it be people who served in the same branch of service or maybe even someone that they served with personally. A former army veteran himself, Villarreal knows how much help SVA-UH can provide.
“Since most student-veterans are usually older than the traditional university student, it makes it a little harder to fit in the campus culture,” Villarreal said. “We benefit from this organization because it gives us a sense of comfort being around others who have walked in the same boots and are familiar with the struggles as we adapt to the university lifestyle.”
Tickets are $10 until Wednesday, July 2nd and $15 the day of the show. For more information visit, www.facebook.com/strictlystreetsalsa and www.facebook.com/svaofuhouston.
