Glitz and glamour graced the Circus Room in the Bone Student Center Sunday night, as the Asian Pacific American Coalition hosted their annual cultural dinner.

Dubbed the biggest event of the year for the APAC, the cultural dinner highlighted the organization’s accomplishments and events from the 2009-10 academic year.

Jenny Wu, senior sociology major and president of the APAC, said such highlights include the various social events hosted by the organization this year, such as roundtable discussions and several get-togethers.

“We wanted to showcase the greatest things we have done this year as an organization, or rather since our creation. We just have this cumulative dinner to honor our actions from this year,” she said.

Wu said one of APAC’s biggest accomplishments this year has been increasing student involvement.

“We’ve been pretty successful at getting the word out to the campus. Our main goal this year was to increase the awareness of this organization, connecting to other organizations across campus and just keeping everyone informed,” she said.

“It just goes to show that no matter what backgrounds we all come from, we are all one people.”

Entertainment provided by student performers, a slideshow of pictures highlighting the year and the presentation of the new executive board were also part of the dinner. Wu said there was no real structure to the dinner, but performers would entertain those in attendance while they ate food catered by the Bone Student Center.

Music included various playlists from attendee’s iPods and live entertainment provided by several members of the organization and DongLai Liu, a special guest from China, who performed a song from his hulusi flute.

Wu said Liu became involved through connections made by the APAC.

“We have connections and networks with various community-related areas in Japan, and so when we were planning this dinner, we asked if he would be interested in performing and he agreed to come,” she said.

Matt Gillett, graduate student, performed guitar and harmony vocals for several songs, including “Winding Road” and “Terminal.”

He said he became more involved in the APAC after studying abroad in Japan four years ago.

“I just got enveloped in the culture and joined up with the Japanese Student Association after getting back to stay up to date with my Japanese. The JSA interacted a lot with the APAC, and so I became more involved in this organization,” he said.

“When they told me they needed a guitar player for their event, I agreed to help.”