BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 918-1042

CHAPEL HILL — Eve Carson’s Carolina Way begins with the words, “Study hard and work hard. Play hard.”

Carson, 22, was UNC’s enthusiastic, thoughtful, yet playful student body president who was known for her late-night dance parties. On Friday night at the Eve Ball, there’s likely to be a lot of people playing hard, dancing, jumping, laughing and showing off their costumes as they support the Eve Marie Carson Scholarship Fund.

Carson was murdered in March 2008 after she was kidnapped from her home off West Rosemary Street.

Her death affected many people in the community in different ways, and Lori Burgwyn, owner of Franklin Street Yoga Center, was one of them. Carson and a friend had enrolled in Burgwyn’s introduction to yoga class in January 2008.

Burgwyn hadn’t really gotten to know Carson but was struck by the fact that after the first class, Carson walked up and asked her why she taught yoga.

“She was the first person that asked me that question,” Burgwyn said. “I didn’t know her at all, but it was just one of those situations when you meet someone and you make a connection.”

After Carson’s death, Burgwyn wanted to do something in her honor. She held special yoga classes, and the fees that participants paid for the classes went to the Eve Marie Carson Scholarship Fund, which provides a merit scholarship to a junior for a summer program and their senior year at UNC.

But that wasn’t enough, so Burgwyn came up with the idea of a Halloween costume ball.

“I remembered that Eve, in one of the stories I read, she asked people in August if they had started working on their Halloween costumes,” Burgwyn said.

That inspired Burgwyn to come up with the idea of the Eve Ball, a dance to be held the night before Halloween; in other words, Halloween Eve. She formed a committee, and they went to work in organizing the event.

So far she’s sold about 150 tickets, and some UNC students were also trying to sell tickets on campus. Her goal is to sell all 400 tickets to raise $8,000 to donate to the scholarship fund. She’s also hoping for some large sponsorship donations to add to the fund.

While talking about the ball at her yoga studio on the south side of University Square, a man walked in, introduced himself as Ken Kleinfeld and handed Burgwyn a CD he made.

There’s a song on it, he said, called “Carolina Spirit” that he wrote after Carson’s death. Like many others, he had never met Carson but was inspired to write and record the song after reading about Carson and the love she had for UNC. He thought maybe Burgwyn could play the song at the ball. She said she would.

The ball, which is at the Carolina Inn, begins at 8 p.m. and runs until midnight. Tickets are $20, and are being sold in advance at Franklin Street Yoga Center at 123 W. Franklin St. and online. A DJ will provide music, and there will be a dessert bar and a cash bar for drinks.

The theme of the ball is: “Don’t come as you are. Come as you want to be.”

Costume contests begin at 11 p.m., and the judges include: Glenn Dicker, co-owner of Mill Town Restaurant & Yep Roc Records; Eddie Williams, owner of Time Out; Barry Keith, owner of Surplus Sid; Marcus Ginyard, member of UNC men’s basketball team; M’liss Dorrence, owner of The Ballet School; Anson Dorrence, UNC Women’s soccer coach; Tracy Earley, morning anchor for News 14 Carolina; and Jasmin Jones, UNC’s student body president.

For information or to buy tickets online go to: http://franklinstyoga.com/eveball.html