Sam Gusich, the programming chair for the Resident Hall Association, said this year’s Kids and Friends Weekend had the most participation than any previous year.

Gusich, a senior sociology major, said that despite the rain on Saturday, the weekend’s events started off strong although attendance did shrink towards the end of the day.

“The kids were on their feet a lot near the beginning of the day,” Gusich said. “We could tell the kids were getting tired and the parents were getting tired. Most of the later events were like crafts and it was good to try and keep them all in one center location.”

The RHA programming committee organized the weekend. Check-in for most of the activities was at 8:30 a.m. Saturday in Carman Hall.

There was also a showing of the movie “Horton Hears a Who” Friday evening in the Lawson Hall basement. Two beanbag chairs were raffled off along with other prizes and there was also pizza and popcorn available.

The weekend’s theme was Dr. Seuss and each residence hall was assigned a Dr. Seuss book as a hall theme.

Some of the books include “One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish,” “If I Ran the Zoo” and “The Cat in the Hat.”

Each resident hall planned a different program Saturday for the group to participate in.

Gusich said Carman Hall had students dressed in red shirts and blue wigs as Thing 1 and Thing 2. Andrews Hall featured an obstacle course with tunnels, hula-hoops and beanbags.

Many of the other halls had crafts such as painting and making masks and puppets.

During each program, two Dr. Seuss books were raffled off along with seven prizes.

There was also face painting during lunch and the RHA gave out prize bags for each of the children at the end.

Dondre Keeler, a sophomore family and consumer sciences major and the vice president of the RHA, said the goal of the weekend was to bring a lot the community and families to see all of Eastern’s campus.

“Each year has been progressively better,” Keeler said, “I was worried rain would stop people, but a lot of people came by.”

Keeler said he felt each hall did a good job of keeping children interested with different programs and his favorite hall program was at Carman Hall.

“Carman did a pin the green egg on the ham,” Keeler said. “I thought it was really creative and interesting.”

Jessica Arteaga, a junior communication disorders and sciences major, is on the RHA’s programming committee. She said she enjoyed the theme and her favorite program of the weekend was the obstacle course at Andrews Hall.

“It was simple but I could tell the kids enjoyed it,” Arteaga said.

Gusich said that even though many of the programs on Saturday ended shorter than expected, the RHA will likely shorten the activities next year.

“We will maybe start the day later or end earlier,” Gusich said, “It was a very long day.”

Seth Schroeder can be reached at 581-2812 or scschroeder2@eiu.edu..

Lucas Garrett, 3, plays the board game Sorry! Saturday in the lobby of Stevenson Hall as part of Kids and Friends Weekend, a two-day event put on by the Residence Hall Association. (Kimberly Foster

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