A crowd of 550 people laughed, hollered and watched with undivided attention as a night of step dancing, runway modeling and comedy unfolded at in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union Thursday night.

Stepping for Unity throughout the Community: Steppers Unite Step Show and Fashion Extravaganza packed the Grand Ballroom from 7 to 10 p.m.

The event featured six step dances and a fashion show, emceed by Black Entertainment Television comedian Joe Clair. Both sections of the event sought to incorporate students of diverse backgrounds organizations.

The goal of the event, coordinated by the Black Student Union and the National Panhellenic Council, was to promote unity and diversity on Eastern’s campus, said Monique Cook-Bey, a graduate advisor for the Student Life Office and one of the coordinators of the event.

“I think it went really, really well,” she said.

Tracy Robson, also a graduate assistant in the Student Life Office and coordinator, said she was surprised by the turnout. She said she hopes the event gets even more participation from organizations in the future.

Those at the event had various reactions to the success of its goal to promote unity and diversity. Brooke Riefsteck, a member of Kappa Delta Sorority and the unity step team, composed of members from various organizations, said she thought the goal was achieved.

“I made a lot of new friends with people from BSU and other [Panhellenic Council] members from different sororities that I had never met,” Riefsteck said. She said performing in the unity team was a great experience.

“If you look around, there’s a lot of diversity in the audience. I think they reached a lot of ethnic backgrounds,” said Roosevelt Williams, a business major.

“I wish there could have been more white organizations up there (on the stage),” said Edward Steurt, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity and their step team that performed at the event.

“In a way (the event) accomplished its goal, but in a way it didn’t. When it’s over, everybody’s going to go back to their own thing, but it was cool for the moment,” Steurt said.

Wolff said she would have liked to see more organizations represented in the show. Cook-Bey said she wished the models could have been more diverse. “But we were very happy with the participation that we did have,” she said.

Shauna Searcy, a business management major and one of the models for the evening, said she believed the event was successful in its goal.

“It was supposed to be for multi-culturalism, and we had a lot of cultures represented,” Searcy said.

Wolff said she believed the event was a lot more

successful by having the step show and the fashion show on the same night.

“It drew more people and helped to diversify the audience,” she said.

Cynthia McGee, a member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority and their step team that performed at the event, said she was pleased to see all the different types of people that were out at the event.

She said the fashion show, which is normally its own event, usually does not get the attention that it should and it helped to collaborate it with the step show.

Cook-Bey said if the event happens again in the future, she would like it to be organized and advertised earlier.

Tonya Douglas, an elementary education major, said she enjoyed the unity step team the most because of its diversity.

“I enjoyed the event,” Douglas said. “They need to have more.”