Pokey O’s continues to help organizations host events for charities. (MICHAEL DANSER/The Daily Campus)

More than 75 SMU and Dallas community members joined forces Tuesday evening to munch on ice cream sandwiches and support a worthy cause.

Students for a Better Society, an SMU student organization that covers social and environmental issues locally and worldwide, partnered with Pokey O’s Cookies & Ice Cream on Mockingbird to co-host a charity event from 7-11 p.m., benefitting the World Vision Experience: AIDS. Twenty percent of the proceeds from the evening were donated to the charity organization.

For more than 50 years, World Vision Experience has offered “resources and information to equip and educate [others] about the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time,” according to the Web site.

Aside from donating to an AIDS organization, SBS also hopes to raise awareness within Dallas about the AIDS epidemic, according to Kamini Khanjee, junior accounting major and the community service chair of SBS who planned the event.

“We had a vote on [Nov. 4] and had an open discussion on charities that we don’t normally work with,” David de la Fuente, a sophomore majoring in biology and sociology and chair of SBS’s Environmental Committee, said. “We normally plan events that raise awareness of health or environmental issues.”

Human Rights Committee within SBS held an event the same week of the Nov. 4 vote, which prompted the idea of spreading AIDS awareness, according to de la Fuente.

SBS hosts roughly 10 events throughout the school year that range in awareness of different campaigns and activities.

The next big event for SBS is held in the spring and will benefit the Texas Campaign for the Environment.

Pokey O’s is also willing to help the community by co-hosting any event that profits a charitable organization, according to owner Kathy Oszustowicz.

“Economic times are tough and most new businesses haven’t lasted through these times, but Pokey O’s has because of the support of the community and SMU. I fervently feel I need to give back.”

For more information on World Vision Experience: AIDS and the AIDS epidemic, visit worldvisionexperience.org.