On Friday, September 27, Pride at Pace, the LGBTQ+ pride-themed club at Pace University hosted a “pantheon”, a collection of important people from 6-8:30. Students attending were asked to dress in togas and any costumes relating to Ancient Greece. Snacks were offered as people joined and met one another.

Around 7 p.m., three prices were raffled off. Those were a vinyl set, an Acropolis Lego Set, and the Percy Jackson box set. Then a half-hour later was the best-dressed contest. The winner was Samantha Sergi. Her prize was tickets to see P!NK in concert. An event with such high-tier gifts and elaborate setup begs the question: How do these events come to life?

For Pride at Pace, multiple board meetings are held. There are so many aspects of their event, they don’t just need a venue. Others include video, tablecloths, props, food, and more to account for. Events don’t spawn out of thin air. For Pride At the Pantheon specifically, creativity was key.

Anthony Guerrero and Alisha Bhandari were behind the food ideas. ” If we had a charcuterie board and glass bowl, we can make some sort of arrangement inside of that glass bowl… we can get mocktails and cheese crackers and then we can get all these decorations. ” When discussing prizes, they thought outside of the box, into what guests would have liked, a critical skill for event planning.

Alisha, who is president of President at Pace, spoke about setting up. ” Set up took three hours, lots of issues we had to work through, but couldn’t have done it without the help of my e-board, PLP(Pi Lambda Phi) brothers, and friends!” An art major, Alisha has a heavy interest in ancient Greek art. Creating and putting on this event meant a lot to them, being able to share their love for the history and art of Ancient Greece.

Pride events are a safe space for all, especially those in the LGBTQ+ community. Anyone and everyone was welcome. Pace Pride member, Annaya Zayas, said “The reason for pride events is just to give more space and more acknowledgment to queer people on campus”. Anthony added “We think about what the queer community would like…we feel very connected to and attached to these certain intersectional communities and identities where the space we typically enjoy being in are queer and nongender conforming spaces, and that’s sort of what the man idea of the event was… we start by thinking ‘what would we like on campus.’”