Prom Dress Rugby

The UCLA women’s Rugby team, as a club sport, doesn’t get any money from UCLA. So they are creative when it comes to fund raising. In it’s third year, the prom dress rugby game, sets the tone. From the Daily Bruin:

Tia Blythe said she and her friends caused heads to turn as they walked to class in their prom dresses. Some of the dresses sparkled incessantly while others resembled vibrant ballerina tutus.

But Blythe and her friends were not dressed to attend a high school dance.

They were getting ready to play rugby.

Blythe and her friends are not only UCLA students, but part of the UCLA women’s rugby team.

The team was dressed Thursday afternoon for their annual “Prom Dress Rugby” fundraising game in hopes of raising money for upcoming season fees and to publicize the team.

“The purpose is to get people to know that UCLA has a (women’s) rugby team because it’s amazing that people don’t know that we exist or even how a rugby ball looks like,” Blythe said.

Blythe said she enjoys the game because it’s good for releasing stress, and it provides an option for women to play an aggressive sport.

“I got into rugby because I got tired of getting yellow cards in soccer,” Blythe said.

Preparations for the fundraising game started at 9 a.m. with players from the women’s rugby team modeling their prom dresses on Bruin Walk as they passed fliers inviting students to the game.

Players also attended class in their unusual attire as a way to attract a larger audience for their game. Many even accessorized their dresses by pining rugby flyers onto them.

Carrissa Hsieh, publicity executive for the team, said they try to wear the ugliest dresses possible to the event.

And they were not only wearing outrageous dresses, but also sports bras, knee-high socks and soccer cleats.

Wearing eye-catching outfits was a great way to draw attention to the sport, Blythe said.

Naturally I thought of how we could apply this to some more local fund raising needs. Like the Common Council. And dodgeball. At Calf pasture Beach. Call it the Council versus the Geese and Sea Gulls. Or something like that.