Tattoos, balloon-sword duels and heated competitions for raffle tickets filled the EC last Friday as part of Drew Night Life’s weekly events.
Inspired by a winter carnival, Progressive Snack Night featured a series of carnival games, such as ring toss, toss-across –– a tic tac toe variation played with bean bags –– pling plong, axe throwing, duck matching, Twister and jumbo bowling. The event was also home to an airbrush tattooist and balloon artist.
RHA Vice President and DNL Student Program Coordinator Robert Angarone (‘24) was standing in the center of the 1867 Lounge, hosting the toss-across and watching participants. “I think the best part of the night was seeing everyone at once doing their own games, having fun [and] being able to work together,” he said.
Jenni Grafilo (‘25), who said her favorite part of the night was dueling passersby with her balloon sword, said the environment was “a little competitive but mostly lighthearted.”
Angarone said, “Our students came out and had a really good time and enjoyed all the games we had to offer.”
The night featured a few obstacles, especially with food vendors. Nothing a last minute Domino’s order couldn’t fix for “the crowd we can always count on,” Angarone said. The event put out pizza, burgers and hot dogs with typical carnival pick-ons, like popcorn and cotton candy.
Another hallmark of the night was the showing of “Mamma Mia!” in Crawford Hall. Coordinators chose this movie as a reminder “of just a fun summer experience, and we wanted to bring that back with our carnival theme overall,” Angarone said.
The rom-com musical had attendees sticking around until the end of the night for a ticket raffle. The series of prizes included a LED stunt car, portable bluetooth speaker and bean bag dorm chair.
Although they had high-desirable prizes, some students felt it wasn’t enough.
“I liked the competitive nature of the games and spending time with my friends,” Kiersten Greiner (‘23) said. “It [was] just hard to win anything because there [were] only a few prizes given out.”
Despite not winning a prize, Grafilo said the night was an overall success and plans to go to another DNL event. She said, “They had good food, a movie, games and prizes.”
