Students hunt for Pokemon during second day of ROC Fest

Qian Cheng

Students warm up for the “EIU Go” event at the Pemberton Great Room. The gestures they are making are related to the four houses from the Harry Potter book and movie series.

AJ Fournier, Campus Reporter

With Pokemon hidden around campus, students celebrated another day of Residents on Campus Fest with a game of “EIU Go.”

While waiting for the game to start, students played Follow the Leader and talked about their favorite board games, dining centers and events coming up during ROC Fest.

Allorah Miles-L’Hote, the vice president of administration and finance, said ROC Fest has been going on for years. This year’s theme is Panther Family Game Night.

EIU Go is similar to Pokemon Go, Miles-L’Hote said. Students had 45 minutes to go out and compete to find different Pokemon around campus.

“The hall that finds the most wins,” Miles-L’Hote said.

Miles-L’Hote said the executive board of RHA was responsible for hiding the Pokémon around campus so that none of the halls would know where any of them were hidden.

EIU Go was not the only event for Tuesday night. After the scavenger hunt, trivia questions on Eastern’s history were asked, followed by Bingo.

A variety of different prizes were given away during bingo, such as a Keurig and a Nintendo 2DS.

Ashley Wheaton, the vice president of community engagement for RHA and head of ROC Fest, said the idea for EIU Go is brand new this year. The idea for this event came from both this year’s game night theme and Pokemon Go’s popularity last year.

“With the whole game theme and mobile games and Pokemon Go being so popular last summer, I wanted to kind of keep that alive,” Wheaton said.

Wheaton said for the game, each team picked a certain Pokemon that determined what kind of Pokemon they would search for on campus. Throughout the game, there were different levels of Pokemon that were worth different point values.

Wheaton said the Pokemon were hidden in and around all the different residents halls, except for Lincoln and Douglas.

ROC Fest is a great way for students in other halls to come together, feel connected and meet other people on campus, Wheaton said.

“It is a great way for others to come together, especially with this event you will be going around and see other halls if you have not already,” Wheaton said.

AJ Fournier can be reached at 581-2812 or ajfournier@eiu.edu.