COSAP is holding its second annual Diary of a Lady Lobo, or DOLLS, event this month to provide students with an outlet outside of alcohol and substance abuse.
COSAP Health Educator Tiffany Martinez said the event, titled “Paint Your Heart Out,” will be held in the SUB Atrium this Wednesday from 6 to 8 p.m. There is no entry fee, and anyone who wants to sign up can do so in the COSAP office, she said. The first 50 students to register will have a seat reserved for them.
Martinez said for this year’s event, COSAP thought along the lines of a “Paint By Wine” idea, but there was an obstacle in the way.
“Since we’re COSAP, we can’t do ‘by wine,’ so we were like, ‘what’s another way we can do it?’” she said.
Martinez said with that in mind she asked art studio student, and COSAP’s graphic artist, Rachel Abeyta if she would be willing to guide and lead a painting for the event. In addition, Martinez and COSAP Marketing Assistant Michele Cruz would be present to support COSAP’s messages of prevention.
“If there’s one thing about COSAP, it’s that we work like a team,” Martinez said.
Cruz said Abeyta is doing a lot of research on her own time to learn how to instruct a painting step-by-step while guiding a group of inexperienced painters.
“I know this is going to be a really great, fun event and we have full confidence that she is just going to blow everyone out of the water with her instructional abilities,” Cruz said, adding that the three of them did a dry run a few weeks ago, and it went very well.
Cruz said the success of last year’s event didn’t hurt, either.
“I think we gained a lot of support with such a big event last year, with different UNM departments and also the student population knowing a little bit more about our DOLLS program, which is great,” she said.
To get the word out this year, Cruz sent an email out to everybody who attended DOLLS last year, many of whom have already signed up to attend this year as well.
“That was really great, to have people recognize the DOLLS program and remember going to the event last year, wanting to come to this year’s event and bringing their friends,” Cruz said.
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Like last year, the event is an alternative activity for students, Martinez said. She called it an activity that’s fun where participants can hang out, meet new friends and bring old friends.
The subject being painted to symbolize the event: a sunflower.
“Sunflowers have multiple meanings, hundreds of meanings,” Martinez said. “So that was very easy for us to basically go and put our prevention messages in with the meaning of a sunflower.”
There also will be food provided, Martinez said, along with art supplies for everybody who attends, and that doesn’t exclude men.
“It’s not only for women, we always have to say that,” she said. “It’s not only for our lady Lobos.”
Martinez said that from the outset they have been geared toward the female demographic, because data from 2014 shows that underage women have now surpassed men in binge drinking at UNM.
“So we were just like, whelp, thank god we have our DOLLS program in which we can try and impact our women in that aspect,” she said. “This is not a pity party or ‘lets blame the victim’ or anything like that. This is like, ‘let’s get a group of girls together, let’s let our hair down, let’s talk about these issues we’re all facing in everyday life and just have some fun.”
In addition, there will also be giveaways, Martinez said. The SHAC and Women’s Resource Center will also be tabling for breaks between painting sessions.
“It’s a really nice feeling to know that students come to us now with a sense of, ‘hey, I can actually have fun with you,’” Martinez said. “We want them to have fun, we want them to enjoy their time here. Yeah, if you come enjoy your time with us there’s going to be no alcohol involved, but we promise you’ll leave feeling like you had fun.”
Matthew Reisen is a senior reporter for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at news@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @DailyLobo.
