2012 - Masquerade Ball

"Building A Sustainable Bridge – From College to the World"

Please download flyer for more information.

Sustainable practices are no longer a trend, but rather the reality of the world in which you and I live in.  There is excitement in the air at The University of the District of Columbia. Come and join us for our first annual CAUSES Masquerade Ball.  The CAUSES Masquerade Ball presents a wonderful opportunity for us to come together in a celebratory atmosphere, to network and enjoy fine food, good company and great entertainment.  Your support is needed  to assist CAUSES in its effort to sustain scholarships for students,  student internships and to continue on-going research and extension/community outreach focused on addressing 21st century issues. Please see our Honorary Chairpersons below.

Date: Saturday, February 4, 2012

Time: 7pm - 11pm

Location: The Bolger Center | 9600 Newbridge Drive | Potomac, MD 20854

For more information on Sponsorship Opportunities please download the Sponsorship Media Packet.

To purchase tickets and/or to make a donation follow this link.

NOTE: Student Tickets: A limited number of student tickets are available at $100/per student. 
Student tickets are available from Ms. Elaine Saunders, Architecture Department, Building 32, Room 205; Monday through Friday from 10AM-5PM.  Ms. Saunders has the tickets and will request proof of student status (ID or current semester payment printout).

Honorary Chairpersons

Will Allen

Will Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production, and delivery of healthy foods to underserved, urban populations. In 1995, while assisting neighborhood children with a gardening project, Allen began developing the farming methods and educational programs that are now the hallmark of the non-profit organization Growing Power, which he directs and co-founded. Guiding all is his efforts is the recognition that the unhealthy diets of low-income, urban populations, and such related health problems as obesity and diabetes, largely are attributable to limited access to safe and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Rather than embracing the “back to the land” approach promoted by many within the sustainable agriculture movement, Allen’s holistic farming model incorporates both cultivating foodstuffs and designing food distribution networks in an urban setting. Through a novel synthesis of a variety of low-cost farming technologies – including use of raised beds, aquaculture, vermiculture, and heating greenhouses through composting – Growing Power produces vast amounts of food year-round at its main farming site, two acres of land located within Milwaukee’s city limits. Recently, cultivation of produce and livestock has begun at other urban and rural sites in and around Milwaukee and Chicago. Over the last decade, Allen has expanded Growing Power’s initiatives through partnerships with local organizations and activities such as the Farm-City Market Basket Program, which provides a weekly basket of fresh produce grown by members of the Rainbow Farmer’s Cooperative to low-income urban residents at a reduced cost. The internships and workshops hosted by Growing Power engage teenagers and young adults, often minorities and immigrants, in producing healthy foods for their communities and provide intensive, hands-on training to those interested in establishing similar farming initiatives in other urban settings. Through these and other programs still in development, Allen is experimenting with new and creative ways to improve the diet and health of the urban poor.

Will Allen received a B.A. (1971) from the University of Miami. After a brief career in professional basketball and a number of years in corporate marketing at Procter and Gamble, he returned to his roots as a farmer. He has served as the founder and CEO of Growing Power, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, since 1995 and has taught workshops to aspiring urban farmers across the United States and abroad.

Maureen Bunyan

Maureen Bunyan is a veteran television news broadcaster and a primary anchor for ABC 7.  Ms. Bunyan anchors the 6 p.m. weeknight newscasts.
Named a "Washingtonian of the Year" in 1992, Ms. Bunyan has an extensive record of service to the community. She is a founder and board member of the International Women’s Media Foundation, which serves women in the media in 100 countries. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists. She also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Casey Journalism Center on Children & Families, the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital Women’s Advisory Board, the Advisory Committee of Women in Film & Video and is a board member of Women of Washington.

In recognition of her significant contributions to broadcasting for over 30 years, Ms. Bunyan has been inducted into the "Hall of Fame" of the Washington Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, "The Silver Circle" of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) and the Broadcast Pioneers Club of Washington. She has been awarded seven local Emmys, and the "Ted Yates Award," given by NATAS to Washington, DC news broadcasters who are leaders in the profession. She was named "Journalist of the Year" by the National Association of Black Journalists. She received the annual "Immigrant Achievement Award" from the American Immigration Law Foundation in 2002.

Ms. Bunyan attended the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Columbia University School of Journalism and holds a Master's Degree from Harvard University Graduate School of Education.

She was born in Aruba and grew up in Southeastern Wisconsin.  She is of Guyanese descent.

Ed Dwight

Ed Dwight, the first African American trained as an astronaut and the sculptor of major monuments, was born on the outskirts of Kansas City, Kansas, in 1933. His father, Ed Dwight, Sr., played second base for the Kansas City Monarchs in baseball's Negro League. Child rearing fell primarily on Dwight's Catholic mother, Georgia Baker Dwight, who convinced her son that he could accomplish almost anything. Dwight grew up an avid reader and talented artist who was mechanically gifted and enjoyed working with his hands.

Dwight joined the U.S. Air Force in 1953, pursuing his dream of flying jet aircraft. He became a test pilot, and in 1961 earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from Arizona State University. At the suggestion of the National Urban League's Whitney M. Young, Jr., the John F. Kennedy administration chose Dwight as the first black astronaut trainee in 1962. Catapulted to instant fame, he was featured on the covers of Ebony, Jet and Sepia, and in news magazines around the world.

Facing severe discrimination from other astronauts, Dwight persevered until Kennedy's death, when government officials created a threatening atmosphere. He resigned in 1966, never having gone into space. Dwight's talents then led him to work as an engineer, in real estate and for IBM. In the mid-1970s, he turned to art and studied at the University of Denver, learning to operate the university's metal casting foundry. He received an M.F.A. in 1977 and gained a reputation as a sculptor. Ed Dwight Studios in Denver is now one of the largest privately owned production and marketing facilities in the western United States. His engineering background helps him face the problems of creating mammoth sculpture and his well-stocked library of African American history and culture informs his work. Dwight is recognized as the innovator of the negative space technique.

Dwight has sculpted great works of celebratory African American art, including international monuments, the Underground Railroad in Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario; a Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial in Denver's City Park; a bust of George Washington Williams in the Ohio State Capitol in Columbus, Ohio; the Black Patriots Memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C.; the South Carolina Black History Memorial in Columbia, South Carolina; and the Alex Haley-Kunta Kinte Memorial in Annapolis, Maryland. The Quincy Jones Sculpture Park in Chicago brings his total major works to thirty-five, some of which are on permanent display at the Smithsonian Institute.