Relays excitement kicks off with Blitz Day

Photo by Taylor Soule, photo editor

Last Monday students awoke to find campus decked out in brightly colored streamers, a giant, inflatable bulldog and sidewalks plastered with the words ‘Viva la Relays.’ With only two weeks left until the big event, the Relays Committee, part of the Student Activities Board, is working to get Drake’s campus hyped up for the 103rd Drake Relays. Monday’s Blitz Day festivities were only the first steps toward building the anticipation for Relays.

At the Blitz Day picnic, held each year in Parent’s Hall, the Relay’s Committee announced the theme for this year’s event – Memories in Motion.

“All organizations work to make memories throughout the year and they’re all just kind of moving forward,” Relays Committee Co-Chair Elizabeth Watton said. “So we thought it was a good fit for a theme and we just thought it was something different.”

Each year a different Relays theme is selected by the Relays Committee.  The theme is then used throughout Relays and during all activities associated with them.

“The theme will be on all of our giveaways, it’s on a big sign that SAB made for the parade, and it will be on the big SAB square down the center of the painted street. It’ll be everywhere,” Watton said.

One of the most important times the theme is used is during street painting. Fifty campus organizations are selected to paint a square based on the theme, therefore the theme is written and depicted down all of the Painted Street for a whole year until next year’s Relays.

“We try to make it something that a group can make their square off of and something feasible to make a logo for,” Watton said. “We just wanted to make it something they could all apply to their organizations.”

Aside from planning the theme, the Relays Committee has been working diligently to prepare the various activities that will take place in association with Relays.

Events kick off this Saturday with a sand volleyball tournament and will continue through Relays.  Other events include singing comedian Brian O’Sullivan, the Relays parade, a hypnotist, the Relays carnival, the Court Avenue concert featuring Red Jumpsuit Apparatus and a pancake breakfast.

“I think at this point we’re just hoping that the student body is as excited about everything as we are because we’ve put so much work into it over the course of the year, especially this semester,” Watton said.

For a more detailed schedule of Relays events refer to the SAB posters around campus or visit www.drakesab.com.