Campus Activities hosted a Field Day for DePauw students this past Saturday, Sept. 30 in Bowman Park.
Students began arriving at 5:00 p.m. and started out with free-play activities like badminton, inflatable bowling, cornhole, and darts.
The event was planned by Campus Activities Coordinator Alyse Millikan, who said this was the first time the school had run a Field Day. She said the Campus Activities staff were looking to be “more creative” with events and make better use of supplies like the badminton net.
For a friendly Field Day competition, students split into teams for a variety of relay races and tug-of-war.
The teams were nicknamed ‘the Swimmers’ and ‘the Non-Swimmers’ because a number of DePauw’s swim team members were on one team together.
The first two relay races were a three-legged race and an egg race – wherein the players had to balance an egg on a spoon, holding the spoon in their hand for one lap and their mouth for the second.
The last relay race was a “wheelbarrow” race, where students worked in pairs; one student walked on their hands while another held their ankles.
The final ‘scored’ event was the tug-of-war, in which the two teams competed for best two-of-three.
The scheduled events wrapped up with a free-for-all water balloon fight. The teams split as everyone worked to hit as many other people as possible.
Afterwards, students continued enjoying the free-play activities. According to Millikan, Campus Activities has events planned for every week. She urged students to follow their emails or check Campus Labs for fun upcoming events like food trucks and scavenger hunts.
Millikan also said that Campus Activities has a new, easier-to-use popcorn machine, which provided snacks for the afternoon. She hoped to get more opportunities to use the machine at future events
Some students brought their own volleyball for the badminton net, while a few others pulled up chairs to spectate. The net stayed up after the event.