You can't argue with the money black-tie fundraisers can drum up for worthy causes, but black ties and cocktail dresses don't really go well with rolled up sleeves and dirty hands.

It's not quite so simple with the Urban Citizen Project, a service learning class held at the University of Colorado at Denver. The semester's biggest project was, in fact, a benefit show, held Nov. 30 at the Oriental Theater, 4335 W. 44th Ave., but the character of the night was more spit-shine and duct tape than glam and glitter.

Local bands donated their performances to get people in the door to raise money for laborers' advocacy organization El Centro Humanitario and Four Winds American Indian Survival Project. The event also raised money for the Jerry Jacks Memorial Scholarship Fund. Jacks, an instructor at UCD, taught the Urban Citizen Project in previous years before dying Feb. 22 at 71 years old. The scholarship continues Jacks' work by supporting students with similar civic-mindedness. But students don't spend the whole semester putting together one show just to call it a job well done. They get their hands dirty.

"It's primarily a student-driven class," said Urban Citizen instructor Harv Bishop. "We help out, but they really are taking the lead. There's a lot of satisfaction in that."

In addition to the beneficiaries from the show, students volunteer with the Colfax Community Network, the PS 1 charter school and other groups.

UCD associate professor and founding board member of El Centro Tony Robinson said, "Students from Urban Citizen were some of the founding staff of El Centro. El Centro had no money to pay a staff, so students were volunteers, painting, fixing it up. They got it going to begin with. As it started to roll and get some grant money, they continue to work in English classes. They get to know what's going on and dive right in."

That kind of involvement, Robinson said, is as good for the students as it is the community.

"Anybody is going to learn better by doing as opposed to theorizing in a class. Another thing they get out of it is healthy and productive release of their high-minded social impulses. It's cathartic, transformational, and teaches you how you can be a citizen. It relieves students from ennui, a kind of moral aimlessness. It gives it direction and cause."