Several student-run clubs and organizations from Slippery Rock University hosted the annual Spring Fling outside the Smith Student Center on Thursday afternoon. The event was sponsored by the University Program Board (UPB), Association of Residence Hall Students (ARHS), Student Government Association (SGA), the HOPE Peer Educators and AVI Food Systems.
Junior Amy Kasyer, the HOPE Spring Fling coordinator, said that HOPE has been planning this event since February and that an event like this takes about two month’s worth of planning.
“This is my second year doing the event and my first year coordinating HOPE’s part of it,” Kayser said. “Our main purpose for this event was to bring educational material to it like we aim to do for every event. We had fun events, like tie-dye and sand art, but we also had stress ball making as well as an information booth that offered ideas for safe, summer fun activities around the Pittsburgh area and also safer sex supplies like condoms, female condoms, and hand sanitizer.”
Sophomore Willem van der Wende, the newly elected Director of Media Relations for UPB for the 2017-2018 academic year, said he likes the event because it helps bring the student body of Slippery Rock University together, especially with all the student-run organizations working together.
In addition to the numerous events put on by UPB, Wende said he was particularly excited for one in particular. Baron Batch, also known by his fans as “The Artist,” is a Pittsburgh-based painter who is known for his “art drops” around places he visits.
“We thought by bringing [Batch] to campus we would get a large crowd out here today, and it happened,” Wende said.
Sophomores Brittany Emminger and Sam Hartz stressed the importance of having an event like this on what they called a “beautiful day” because it allows students to take their minds off of final exams for a little bit.
Vice President of Programming for ARHS Richelle Fuller said that the stress-less factor of Spring Fling is a huge reason to why ARHS chooses to collaborate on such an event every year.
“Especially with it being near the end of the spring semester, with everything going on in people’s lives, Spring Fling is a great event to have,” Fuller said. “[ARHS] had a bunch of fun events that were put on today, such as ‘Twister’ and a Plinko board where you could win ‘Downy Unstoppable’ laundry packets.”
Along with major student-run organizations present at Spring Fling, there were several House Councils (subdivisions of ARHS that represent each of the residence halls on campus) that held events. One particular event was “Spikeball,” which was provided by Building F.
The idea behind “Spikeball,” was to get some physical activity going and to get the students’ blood flowing before finals week, Building F president and sophomore Nathan Miller explained.
“There was a great turnout today,” Miller said. “Spring Fling is a great way to meet some new people and to simply have some fun before the ‘big grind’ of the end of the semester.”
Newly-elected Vice President of Campus Outreach for SGA and Watson Hall Community Assistant Dallas Kline called Spring Fling “the perfect event to end the year.”
“Nobody was bored for a second,” Kline said. “We were lucky to be able to work with so many organizations to bring the student body together before the year is over. Special shout-out to Baron Batch, UPB, HOPE, and all the House Councils on a great event.”
