Last Wednesday, many students gathered on Helmick Commons to enjoy the Student Activity Board’s (SAB) annual Fall Carnival, organized by SAB’s two new sophomore “spirit” chairs, Ashley Dyson and Summer Fields.
According to Dyson, majoring in politics and history, she and Fields are not only new to their positions as spirit chairs, but also to the SAB executive board at large.
Dyson said it was admittedly difficult for her and Fields – a triple major in law, politics and society, English and sociology – to learn all of the moving parts of their new roles.
“Once we got kinda in the swing of things, though, it was a lot easier to get adjusted to this new position and plan this carnival event,” Dyson said.
Anna George, a junior who serves as SAB’s vice president of programming, said she thinks the fact that Dyson and Fields were both brand new made the carnival better than before.
“I always think it is good when the people planning have never actually done the event before, because then there’s usually new ideas that they bring to the table,” George said. “Then, they don’t feel like they have to do what the previous chairs have done.”
Dyson and Fields did change many aspects of the carnival from last year. According to Fields, one of her main goals for this year was to rearrange the inflatables and games to make the event feel less “congested” than in years past.
“We tried this year to spread things out and really utilize all of Helmick, not just the front part,” Fields said.
Fields also said they chose to take away some of the attractions that didn’t get as much attention last year and exchange them with things people might want to do.
“Like, we added just a normal bounce house because you don’t see normal bounce houses at adult parties anymore,” Fields said.
Additionally, Dyson said they decided to invite Fermata the Blue – Drake’s co-ed acapella group – to perform in addition to the Brocal Chords, who also performed last year.
“I think that added a lot more variety,” Dyson said.
The last major change Dyson and Fields made to the carnival was to invite a Drake student, junior Cameron Lee-Parker, to draw caricatures for the event rather than hire a professional.
“We wanted one of our own student artists because I thought that would add a more personal touch to the atmosphere,” Dyson said.
All-in-all, both Dyson and Fields feel the carnival was a success, as the students who attended seemed to have a lot of fun. They each said it was hard to choose what their favorite aspect of the event was.
“I think my favorite part of the carnival was just seeing it all come together after planning it for the entire summer…and seeing everyone being happy,” Fields said. “The food has really been a big hit, so I guess that makes the food my favorite.”
Though the carnival has only just passed, the spirit chairs are looking ahead to the next two events they have planned for the month of October: the “Taste of Des Moines” food festival on Oct. 12., and the Halloween Spooktacular, which will occur in Olmsted sometime around Halloween.
Although not all the details for the Spooktacular are finalized, Dyson said they already have several fun events lined up to occur, including a haunted tunnel, an arcade room and a mechanical bull.
“Trust me, there are a lot of other fun things planned that cannot be disclosed at the moment,” Dyson said, and she encouraged students to attend if they want to find out what fun things the SAB has in store for the evening.
