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News

Thirsty Thursday stirs up controversy

Krystal Kehoe - Investigative Editor

Beginning Feb. 4, 2010, Kamloops will see two Thirsty Thursdays.

Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE), which normally runs the weekly event at Heroes, decided to move their Thirsty Thursday to Cactus Jacks in downtown Kamloops.

“There were restrictions being put in place, and problems over the past years. They made it difficult for us to run the night the way that we originally wanted to run it,” said Shawn Kambo, VP of SIFE membership.

“Unfortunately circumstances just came to a point and we’ve chosen to look for another opportunity off campus, with CJs,” said Amy Berard, VP of SIFE programming.

But SIFE moving their night will not mean the end to Thirsty Thursday at Heroes, it just means that there is opportunity for other campus clubs to have a turn, said Gerard Hayes, TRU director of ancillary services.

Hayes explained that for the past two years, TRU has been debating with SIFE to share Thirsty Thursday with other TRU clubs, but SIFE was not in agreement.

“All we did was take back one night out of the past seven years that they’ve had the monopoly on Heroes,” Hayes said.

Last Thursday, Jan. 21, Thirsty Thursday was run by the Adventure club, who had a “Where’s Waldo” theme.

In an article written by the Kamloops Daily News (Dec. 22, 2009), it was stated that SIFE brought in approximately $15,000 in revenue over a 25 week period, with their main source of income being a weekly event at Heroes.

Hayes said that it is a substantial amount of money.

“We think that it’s a great fundraising opportunity for other clubs too,” Hayes said. Heroes will now go into a club rotation, so that multiple clubs have the opportunity to generate an income. And Heroes will continue using the name Thirsty Thursday, he said.

SIFE, which operates campus and community projects, needs to generate an income to implement their projects and compete against other teams at a regional and national level, explained Dr. Shahriar Hasan, TRU department of management.

“It comes down to what we want to do,” Hasan said. “Our end goal, for the students, is to go to the regional and national competition and tell them what we did. Now the more we [do], the more the credit, and in order to do more we need more money.”

SIFE has worked with the Kamloops Brain Injury Association, worked with local entrepreneurs, and is implementing a food and fun drive on campus for the Kamloops Food Bank. Berard said that the overall goal is to improve the quality of life for those in need. By moving to Cactus Jacks, SIFE will be able to run their Thirsty Thursday with a lot more freedom, she said.

“We want to go back to what our original vision was, in really giving students a new option and a better Thirsty Thursday than we’ve had in previous years,” Berard said.

But Hayes said that students should also be aware that Heroes will continue having an event on campus.

“There’s a big portion of our students who really like staying on campus for a lot of reasons, the safety reasons, the cost of cabs,” Hayes said. “We’d like to think it’s safer on campus, with our own security as well.”

TRU ancillary services is accepting proposals from campus clubs interested in hosting a Thirsty Thursday at Heroes pub.

SIFE will be hosting their Thirsty Thursday at Cactus Jacks beginning Feb. 4, and it will remain a weekly event until the end of the semester, Berard said.