Dozens of students gathered at the top of the hill above Quad Creek and near Carpenter Bridge on Feb. 19 to partake in the Drake University tradition of “Hubbling”: sledding down the hill on plastic meal trays.
Drake student and Vice President of Traditions for the Student Alumni Association Lesly Velazquez-Morales described a scene of students cheering each other on, dancing to music, crashing into one another as they slid down the hill and tramping through “mountains of snow” to get back to the top.
“You could hear in the back all the laughs and the screaming from when people would like, crash down in the end, so that was pretty fun,” Velazquez-Morales said.
The SAA organized the event and provided attendees with hot chocolate and takeaway treat bags. Kiley Kahler, the president of the association, said that the SAA submitted personal protective equipment guidelines and event logistics to the university to request approval for Hubbling.
“Masks were required; also social distancing was enforced. I was personally going around, saying, you know, ‘everybody six feet apart, six feet apart,’” Kahler said. “…All of our goodies were pre-packaged into bags with our volunteers wearing gloves, and then our hot cocoa was distributed with one person who wore gloves the whole time, and a mask, so that way there weren’t like high touch points.”
Kahler emphasized the large turnout for Hubbling, as well as the value of students gathering safely and in-person for an event.
“We had around 50 to 70 people show up within the span from 3:30 to 5:00, and it was really incredible to see so many people out for Hubbling,” Kahler said. “It was really reassuring to have an in-person event during the pandemic that was—it was just a really great moment.”
Griff II, the university’s live mascot, attended the event.
“We had like 20 people fill out a post-event survey, and it was pretty unanimous that George is the main draw to, I think, the majority of events on campus,” Kahler said.
Kim Jones, assistant director of alumni relations at Drake and advisor of the SAA, said she thinks that “the spirit of everything we do is epitomized by just the way that George is with students.”
Jones said the Hubbling tradition goes back to at least the 1990s, when students used to smuggle meal trays out of the dining hall and use them for sledding on the hill. Eventually the SAA bought meal trays to recreate the tradition.
“So we, as an SAA and a student group, we try to highlight these events that students started having many years ago, and we try to recreate them in the current state,” Jones said.
Students weren’t the only ones who took part in festivities. Jones said Drake alumna Maia Sheppard was telling her children about how she used to take part in Hubbling when she rounded a corner and happened upon the event. Jones said that Sheppard’s children took trays and slid down the hill.
“I don’t think students at the time, you know, go to the event saying, ‘well, this is probably something when I come back as an alum I will specifically remember,’ but you do see that it happens,” Jones said.
Jones emphasized the importance of maintaining traditions to the Student Alumni Association’s mission.
“I mean, we’re creating memories, obviously. And those memories stick with you,” Jones said. “So, that’s part of our mission, is to make sure that the student experience extends beyond their time on campus. So, for me, it was a great win, especially having that alum come around the corner and reinforcing that we’re doing the right thing.”