On Tuesday, February 11 OCOA Community Outreach Association (OCOA) auctioned off students form Laurier Brantford in their first bachelor-bachelorette program. OCOA is a group that is sending students to help build houses in the Dominican Republic in the summer.

Five females and four males were auctioned off to the Laurier Brantford student body. One by one each of them would walk out to a short biography about themselves and their personalities given by Laurier Brantford student Megan Hennebury. Some of the bachelors even went as far as to say their favourite movie is The Notebook while enjoying long walks on the beach.

Sara Cifiani is the president of OCOA and talked about how much fundraising is needed to build houses in the Dominican. “Each house costs $4,000 each but my goal is to raise about $2,500 for the entire year.”

Jessica Collins, an executive member of OCOA, said, “We’re hoping to raise enough money for both houses and possibly feed families afterwards if we have money left over.”

The executive members of the team all had put in a lot of effort into the program but the stars of the event were the bachelors and bachelorettes.

“I thought it was great and wasn’t nervous at all. It was honestly a big rush”, Shannen Maili-McAleer said moments before she went on stage.

James Gould was one of the bachelors auctioned off at the event. “I was flattered when they considered me to be a bachelor. Hopefully I didn’t look too ridiculous, but I kind of went overboard anyways.”

The crowd seemed to love the event with screaming and shouting happening from the very beginning and energy pulsing through the room for the entire event. OCOA raised $600 from this event.