Jewish students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas were making final preparations Friday for the school's first-ever mega Shabbat event.

According to freshman Jackie Honig, organizers of the Shabbat100 dinner sponsored by the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish Student Center along with Hillel and the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity are expecting about 80 people to attend.

"It's going really well," she said on Thursday in the midst of handing out flyers. "We've been advertising and talking about it a ton."

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Rabbi Tzvi Bronchtain, who came to Las Vegas with wife Rivkah Bronchtain in 2005 to head up the new Chabad House at UNLV, said that getting almost 100 Jewish students together for dinner at a commuter college is a feat in and of itself. For many, he added, it will be their first time experiencing a real Shabbat meal.

"There's a lot of excitement," he relayed. "People are very proud to come out for a big Jewish event on campus. This will show others that UNLV has a vibrant, living Jewish community."

Beginning just after sundown Friday night, students will gather for services, followed by a dinner of challah, roasted chicken, green beans, several different salads and dips, and dessert.

Honig said that she wants to spread the warmth she feels at the Bronchtains' dinner table each week to more and more students.

"My friend brought me to Shabbat dinners at their house," she said. "Since then, I've been going to all the events. I go to their weekly Torah class called Pizza and Parshah, and I was at the annual West Coast Shabbaton put on by Chabad on Campus this February."

"A few students are even taking off from work to be able to come to this," noted Bronchtain. "They want to be counted. They want to be visible."