Another year, another beautiful early weekend here in Houghton. Personally, this was my third K-Day and it was just as fun and bright as the first, except with a little less pressure to join every group since leaving Freshman year behind. K-Day, or Keweenaw Day, came in full force with plenty of sunshine and incredible weather after several big storms earlier this month. Keweenaw Day is a day where students get let out of class early so they can go out and enjoy and learn about the beauty of our surroundings here in the Upper Peninsula as well as possibly finding a new club or organization to join.
Students swarmed the Centennial Park in Chassel well-fed on hot dogs and watermelon and explored the clubs and activities available. This year’s K-Day was not held in McLain State Park as it usually is due to construction being done to preserve the park and help prevent some shoreline erosion.
Regardless of the change in location, plenty of students made the trip out to Chassel, and the park there was also right on the water which allowed for plenty of activities just as they would normally be done.
Clubs and student organizations from all over campus headed out early to set up shop and hopefully attract some eager new participants. There were two sides of the park, one with food and some booths and the other side with the rest of the booths. Organizations and clubs included everything from gamers and board games to volunteer construction and church groups. From sports and sororities to fraternities and snowshoeing, there was a booth for every type of student. There was a small playground as well where students could hang out and St. Albert’s the Great members were handing out water and mocktails. The park was packed with students new and old looking for something fresh to spice up their academic lives.
Sororities and fraternities recruited new members, handing out free objects (and sometimes even goldfish) and playing cornhole to pass the time. The volleyball team had set up their booth right in front of a volleyball net where attendees of K-Day were encouraged to stop and let loose for a while.
As usual, there was the giant inflatable obstacle course for people to overcome and several booths were offering soda pop and popsicles as refreshments to beat the heat. Of course, college students could also stock up on their sunglasses and frisbees, drawstring bags and candy by making the rounds.
The ROTC featured their push-up contest where participants could win certain prizes for being able to do a certain number of push-ups. One organization had canoes out on the water and attendees could sign the waiver and head out on the waves to run a simple race course, they kept track of your “team’s” time for a competition between other non-members. Plenty of people fell into the water and plenty more had their shoes off to either walk by the shore or to walk through the rain-sodden grass. Of course, just sitting by the water and watching the bustle of the crowd was wonderful too. Not to mention the ridiculous number of friendly dogs that had come out to enjoy the sunshine as well.
K-Day offers a great opportunity to students looking to find a good enterprise to replace senior design as they can chat with members of the team and maybe even find a pamphlet or see what the enterprise is all about. Volunteer clubs and organizations also come out to recruit members and give the community an opportunity to see what kind of volunteer options are out there.
Joining clubs and organizations is part of what makes college such an experience, building lasting relationships and discovering new hobbies in this limbo stage of life where there’s still a strong safety net to catch you in case you try out something you don’t like. So if you signed up for something, try and go to a meeting or two and see what it’s all about, you never know if it’ll help point you in the right direction or help you decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. Even if it just gives you something useful to do in these four years at college, it’s time well spent.
