Students have many opportunities to partake in Veishea 2010 and help the Iowa State and Ames community at the same time. Whether interested in participating in community service activities, like Keep Veishea Service Day, Stash the Trash or Keep Iowa State Beautiful, or traditional student competitions, like Battle of the Bands, Veishea Says I’m Funny or Cyclone Idol, activities are available for many interest groups this spring.

Service Projects

Veishea’s Campus and Community Involvement Committee has been planning several activities for this year, featuring new, larger projects.

The committee has partnered with established groups, like the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Lutheran Services in Iowa and Habitat for Humanity to provide larger scale projects for students to volunteer in. The hope is that the partnerships and larger projects will work out better for students and allow everyone who wants to get involved do so.

“In the past we would do something like paint someone’s fence, and there were a lot of reasons that those projects didn’t work. People wouldn’t be able to find the address, so they wouldn’t come or different things like that,” said Tanner Howard, campus and community involvement committee co-chair. “I’m excited for the opportunities with the large scale projects. These projects show that Ames students and the community can come together for the general betterment of the community.”

Some of the projects of Veishea Service Day include cleaning up Ledges State Park and planting a community garden at Beloit Children’s Home. Apart from the projects organized through Veishea Service Day, Stash the Trash and Keep Iowa State Beautiful are also sponsored community cleanup projects that students can volunteer in to beautify Ames. Stash the Trash focuses on the cleaning of city parks, while Keep Iowa State Beautiful focuses on campus cleanup.

All of the projects are open to students, as well as members of the Ames community, and they all take place on March 27. The committee works with the greek community and provides points to greek volunteers’ houses for their annual Greek Week competition, but this year they hope to see more involvement from residents of the residence halls.

“It’s cool to see members of the community, young and old, working together on these projects,” Howard said. “It’s an opportunity to serve the community, and students should consider coming out and getting involved with that, if for no other reason than to get a group of friends together and do a service project.”

Registration for any of the service projects is available online, at www.veishea.iastate.edu/index.m?nodeID=21957&audienceID=1.  The registration process has been simplified this year, and asks volunteers for basic contact information and which service project they’re interested in participating in on March 27.

Entertainment

The entertainment activities are held to showcase the talent of students attending Iowa State. Whether students want to display their bands’ latest music, sing their favorite songs or tell their funniest jokes, the three main entertainment activities provide students a chance to get on stage, show off their abilities and represent Iowa State.

Cyclone Idol is the campus wide singing focused talent search. The event is co-sponsored by the Student Union Board and will be held in various places in the Memorial Union. Preliminary rounds for the competition will take place at the Maintenance Shop on April 5, 7 and 8 and ten singers chosen to advance will compete in the final competition, which will be held April 15 in the Great Hall. Applications for the event are due March 12, by 5 p.m.

“Personally, I don’t have the guts to get up on stage and sing in front of an audience, but I’d encourage anyone who’s interested to take a chance,” said Meagan Hennessy, entertainment committee co-chair. “It’s a good way for people to get out there and get encouragement.”

Battle of the Bands is the one competition that is open to the public, as well as ISU students. The competition is a regional one, and the winner advances in the competition to the national level. Registration is due March 1 at the Veishea office in the West Student Office Space, along with an up-front registration fee of $10 and a demo for each band. Bands that advance to the finals will also be subject to an additional $40 fee.

“The Battle of the Bands fees go toward paying the fees that holding the competition entails, like renting the venue and equipment like lighting and sounds,” said BJ Brugman, entertainment committee co-chair. “Even though it might sound like a lot, it doesn’t cover all the expenses.”

“The fees also help to eliminate bands that aren’t serious about the competition,” Hennessy said.

Of all of the registered bands, musically inclined judges will listen to the demos and select seven bands to automatically advance to the finals, while 10 remaining bands will compete for one of the three open spots in the final competition.

The preliminary competition will take place at the M-Shop April 14 and 15, and the final competition will take place April 16. The overall winner of the competition will open Live @ Veishea on Saturday night.

Veishea Says I’m Funny is a competition among the stand-up comedians attending Iowa State. The jokes will fly April 13 at the M-Shop.

“I’d encourage students to come out and celebrate Iowa State,” Brugman said. “Everyone’s out to have a good time and it’s a good chance to celebrate your accomplishments.”

Due to increasing audiences, the entertainment committee will provide streaming coverage of Veishea Says I’m Funny and the final rounds of Battle of the Bands and Cyclone Idol in rooms throughout the Union while competitions are underway.

All of the events will be judged by a variety of guest judges, which usually include celebrity judges, employees of the M-Shop and students, Hennessy said. Both Cyclone Idol and Battle of the Bands will also feature text voting.