The Renegades want their peers at Columbia to come rock with them March 8 at the Conaway Center, 1104 S. Wabash Ave., from 7 – 9 p.m.

The first ever “Rockin’ with the Renegades” is a party that has been two years in the making. The non-formal event put on by the student-run organization will allow students to meet and greet athletes, win prizes and eat free food.

“I like the fact that we are incorporating music, games, food and a chance to meet the teams,” said Mark Brticevich, the Renegades faculty adviser. “[We are] using all the little carrots we can to get people to come out to the event.”

The entire evening is free and students are welcome to bring a guest. All the Renegades teams are required to attend the event.

“I understand not all of them will be able to be there but at least a few [will be] to represent each team,” said Renegades President Abby Cress.

Team representatives will introduce themselves to students and raffle off prizes throughout the night.

According to Cress, the production elements have yet to be decided, but she has a good idea of what she wants “Rockin’ with the Renegades” to be. She does know that the event will have musical guests DJ Narz and the student band Dash.

Cress, who used to be on the Blood Ball planning committee, said the ball is Columbia’s version of a prom and she wants the night to be the college’s pep rally.

“[The planning committee wanted] to make Rockin’ with the Renegades kind of a homecoming, since homecoming is more about sports,” Cress said.

The event coming to fruition had a lot to do with the participation of Renegade athletes such as Jon Bowman, captain of the baseball team, and volleyball captain Brady Hudson.

“It’s just been an idea for a long time, so now we are finally making it happen,” Cress said.

Former Renegades President Kevin Hartmann came up with the idea for the event and handed the responsibility of planning it to Cress at the end of last semester.

The “Rockin’ with the Renegades” planning committee has been meeting every other Monday for the past several months and decided to team up with the

Student Programming Board to put on the event. That partnership led to a sponsorship from Powerade.

Sharod Smith, programming coordinator for the Student Affairs Office of Special Events, said getting the sponsorship was simple because Ashley Brown, who runs the Powerade market in Chicago, interned for Smith.

“Obviously Powerade is for sporting events, so it made sense,” Smith said.

Brticevich said he is excited about the event and its goals, but the night will be subject to evaluation.

“I’m sure we’ll do some kind of autopsy on the event when it’s over and see what we want to change, what we want to continue [and] see if it’s even worth doing again,” he said.