The Residence Hall Association started planning its annual spring Kids and Friends Weekend Thursday.

The RHA’s Programming Committee is in charge of making this weekend of activities happen.

Children from grades first through eighth will be invited to take part in the weekend.

Kids and Friends Weekend will be a two-day event, taking place March 4th and 5th.

The weekend’s activities will begin Friday night, when all children will be invited to have a movie night in one of the residence halls.

On Saturday, the children will be put into groups and visit each residence hall throughout the day.

This year’s theme was chosen between Toy Story and Dr. Seuss.

The RHA decided on a Dr. Seuss theme.

Each hall will read a different Dr. Seuss book to their groups.

Sam Gusich, a senior sociology major and the program chairwoman, said the committee anticipates each residence hall to play a game or do a craft project following the reading of the book.

Thirteen residence halls and Greek Court will participate in the weekend.

“(Kids and Friends Weekend) is so we can have a program in the spring for our community,” Gusich said.

The purpose for this program is to hopefully get the community involved and also to give something back to the town of Charleston, Gusich said.

Liz Burbatt, a freshman communication disorders and sciences major, is also on the programming committee. She said she hopes this program will provide fun for all the children that participate.

Kids and Friends Weekend also aims to help out Eastern.

Gusich said this program should not only have a big turnout, but also have the residence halls working together more.

More plans for Kids and Friends Weekend will be made closer to the date of the program.

Olivia Angeloff can be reached at 581-7942 or onangeloff@eiu.edu.