Photo: Connor McCourtney
The Student Activities Board has the perfect event for this Valentine’s Day. “Cheap, Protected Sex” is coming Tuesday at 7 p.m. in room 312 nd 313 in Upper Olmsted.
SAB is collaborating with Planned Parenthood and the Mid-Eastern Council on Chemical Abuse to hold this event. One of the rooms will feature a student group presenting about safe sex on a budget, while the other one will have representatives from both Planned Parenthood and MECCA. The student group will present twice and the other room will have tables set up by Planned Parenthood with different games and activities to participate in such as wheels featuring different facts about sex, and games about safe, healthy sex. MECCA will have information on healthy relationships displayed through trivia games and booths.
“Students can go between rooms, or they can just choose to come and play a board game if they want,” said Alex Caskey, SAB Campus Impact co-chair. “It’s pretty open and casual, it will just be fun and a little edgy.”
This event has been in the works for a while. In the fall, MECCA contacted Drake looking for a way to reach out and educate students. MECCA is a community-based substance abuse and behavioral health service. SAB has been working with a representative from MECCA.
“They are an organization in the community that wanted to help with whatever we had going on,” said SAB President Greg Larson. “We talked with [the representative] and came up with an educational, fun, edgy idea, that is more interactive and engaging.”
Prizes will be handed out throughout the even, including condoms, cozies and informational items. Students living in the residence halls should be on the lookout for gift bags as well to go along with the event’s theme. The gift bags feature suckers with clever sayings such as “suck on this” and “cheap sex cumming.”
This event is the perfect way to end two weeks of Valentine’s Day themed shows.
“We tried to combine all of the SAB events in these two weeks with a Valentine’s theme, and then all of our promotional items go together as well,” said Jessica Hamilton, SAB Campus Impact co-chair.
Larson said Drake has statistics that show what some of the major issues on campus are, and SAB related them to the Valentine’s theme.
“We contacted Dean of Students Sentwali Bakari,” Larson said. “We wanted to know what issues are prevalent on campus. This was one of a few topics brought back so we realized that this was something that should be addressed.”
Hamilton said Campus Impact asked for student input as well.
“Through speaking with students we think this is an issue pressing college students and we haven’t brought anything like it recently,” Hamilton said. “We thought it would be something new.”
“Especially after incidents we’ve had on campus,” Caskey added. “Those should be addressed, so we’re bringing this to show an alternative. Sex can be healthy and safe.”
