A day in the life of the student activities guy - September 1, 2009

Another Welcome Week is now behind us and we’re off and running with the 2009 Kirkwood Fall Tour. I thought about writing my first blog on the attendance numbers for events last week or the heavy rain that postponed a few of our events, but I thought it might be more entertaining to take you through a day in the life of the student activities guy J

A day in the life of the student activities guy – September 1, 2009

I left home shortly after 7:00am with my coffee mug in hand and the excitement of the day’s activities. The short drive to work got me thinking about how we were going to get the word out about the cookout, live music, and hypnotist on campus today.

I got to the office and found the “FREE EVENT TODAY” balloons we had stored in our back room and decided to make a few quick flyers to attach to the balloon’s string. I printed a few flyers to anchor the balloons to the floor and had a few printed before our first work-study employees showed up for the day. I had them fill the balloons with helium and attach them to the flyers before they spread out 15 or so across the hallways at Kirkwood. I also got a good stack of “Free Cookout Today” posters printed and hung on the doors of a few buildings near the center of campus where the cookout would be held.

Shortly after 9:00am, we started getting things ready for the cookout and live music. We set up a 6x12 foot stage outside of Iowa Hall, gathered up the coolers and put the pop on ice, and started setting up the sound system and pop-up tents. A few of us spent the next hour or so getting the food outside, tents set-up, and other things set-up for the day. I got a phone call from our musician, Nick Pagliari letting us know he was near campus and trying to figure out where he was setting up. I showed him the stage and got him hooked up to the sound system he would be using for the day. I lit the grill about 10:15am and got a head start on the grilling knowing the line would form and go quickly before long. We had everything set-up and ready to serve about 10:45 as classes dismissed for activity hour and the line of hungry students formed. I had probably a hundred hot dogs cooked ahead of time and was ahead of the rush. Students came through the line and began enjoying their lunch, the music, and the nice weather.

We handed out the last of 450 hot dogs about an hour later as students made their way to their classes at noon. We spent the next hour or so folding up tents and tables and putting away the stage, grill, and all of the other things we had out for the day’s activity.

I spent the next few hours doing some random tasks on my list. I did some preparation for next week’s “Live Band Kirkwood Idol” event, I responded to several emails, and I got a few other things ready for the night’s hypnotist. From about 4-5:30 I got some posters up near Ballantyne Auditorium advertising for other upcoming events, prepared a few things for the four classes I’ll be talking to tomorrow, and grabbed a quick snack before the hypnotist arrived on campus for the evening’s entertainment.

A few minutes before 6, I was putting up a few signs near the auditorium when I ran into Brian Imbus, our hypnotist for the evening. We talked a bit and got the chairs set on the stage, the mic tested, and everything finalized prior to the show. I went back to the office to get a large box of giveaways for the night before welcoming students into the auditorium. Around 7pm, myself and a few student volunteers threw out what we had left of the Fall Tour t-shirts to members of the audience. I hadn’t counted how many seats were full yet, but I guessed it was close to our record for a Student Life event in the auditorium (315 students for the hypnotist last year). We threw out the t-shirts and I made some general announcements about upcoming events and other Student Life activities.

I welcomed Hypnotist Brian Imbus to the stage as the show began. I can’t possibly talk about all of the things that happened in the show, but I can honestly say that if you were not there, you missed out. We ended up with 411 people in attendance, shattering our old record. There were some great dancers, hilarious one-liners, and plenty of friends made on stage. The show lasted about an hour and a half and students left the auditorium with stories to tell and smiles on their faces. After cleaning up the auditorium and taking the duct tape off of all of the chairs on stage, it was almost time for me to head home. I did a few more random things and left the office about 9:15pm. Shortly after I arrived home, I uploaded many of the day’s pictures (Cookout, Nick Pagliari, and Hypnotist) on to Facebook. I posted the pictures to the KIRKWOOD EVENTS group on Facebook if you want to see more.

Shortly after 11:30pm, I decided to call it a day and head to bed. I’m looking forward to another day of fun, another day at Kirkwood, and most of all - another day of helping the students of Kirkwood get the most out of their college experience.