New records were broken this year as Vietnamese student associations from all over the Gulf Coast gathered for their annual Date Auction.

With more than 600 people in attendance at Tulane’s McAlister Auditorium on Nov. 11, the Union of Vietnamese Asian Associations Gulf Coast raised over $18,000, topping last year’s record of $16,000.

Since being founded in 2014, this was the first time that all 10 schools in the union, which includes the states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, participated in the event.

Date Auction is a talent show where students are auctioned off to raise money for a philanthropy project. This year’s project was Pacific Links.

Vinh Nguyen, external vice president of the Loyola Asian Student Organization, was a part of the team that helped to choose this project.

“[Pacific Links] is a philanthropy project in Vietnam that helps sex traffic victims by giving them resources and the necessary support they need to get back and reiterated into society,”  he said.

Every year there are several philanthropy projects that apply to benefit from Date Auction, but they can only choose one, which Nguyen said is a difficult choice.

“It’s always awful for us because we have to disregard these other ones until the following year and maybe ever further than that,” Nguyen said.

Even though it is called an auction, each participant is responsible for raising money on their own before the event and showing a talent at the show. The performances range from singing and dancing to “epic” handshakes and starting a party.

Loyola biology senior Jensen Tran said he volunteered to be in the auction because he thinks it’s important for Vietnamese-Americans to give back to people in Vietnam.

“I think overall it’s a really great event, and it’s all for a good cause,” Tran said. “Asians are a minority in America, so we need to help each other.”

Tran raised money by having a barbecue at Loyola on Nov. 2. In the auction, he performed a traditional Chinese lion dance, which he said stood out from other people’s talents.

“I think I did pretty well. It’s a nice change of pace in between all the singing, dancing and playing piano,” Tran said.

He raised $300. Each performer raised between $200 and $2,000.

Tran said that he hopes Date Auction continues to grow, so that it can continue to break donation records.

“I hope every year we keep breaking more boundaries, inviting more schools and having more students get involved,” he said.