Block party wraps up the year
Erin McCarthy
Issue date: 5/8/09 Section: News
Students and community members gathered in the Western Illinois University Union Plaza Wednesday to eat free hot dogs, hear their peers sing karaoke and have one of President Goldfarb's famous egg creams at the Union Block Party.
A committee of Union staff organized the annual event, which generally takes place the Wednesday before finals week. Keri Allison, facilities manager for University Union general building operations, headed the planning committee this year and said she likes to include other campus groups, such as Students T.A.L.K., the Alcohol and Other Drug Resource Center and Western's Office of Public Safety in the event.
"Mac's Karaoke is a local DJ, and he's been doing the block party for about four or five years at least. We enjoy him and so do the students every year," Allison said. "We like to do whatever we can to make it a good time because this is the Union's way of saying thank you to the students for another good year."
In past years there have been other activities at the party, such as inflatable bounce houses, and the committee tries to be as resourceful as possible with their budget, Allison added.
"Our main focus is the free food and drinks and music, and then we try to add as we plan," Allison said. "We had great weather this year, and it seemed like we had a big crowd this year. This is the first time we ever ran out of food before the party was over."
South of the Union Plaza, OPS facilitated their drunk driving exercise. Trent Robertson, OPS officer, said that he enjoys being a part of the Union Block Party each year and educating students on the seriousness of drunk driving.
"It's pretty fun to do, and people have a good time with it," Robertson said. "When we set up the course we don't really want people to fail, but when they put the goggles on they're going from sober to a .08 BAC, so people have a little trouble driving."
The exercise consists of a driving course made out of cones, which students drive through on a golf cart. After the first run through, students are given a choice between two pairs of fatal vision goggles, which simulate how one would see with a blood alcohol content of .08 either at night or in daytime.
A committee of Union staff organized the annual event, which generally takes place the Wednesday before finals week. Keri Allison, facilities manager for University Union general building operations, headed the planning committee this year and said she likes to include other campus groups, such as Students T.A.L.K., the Alcohol and Other Drug Resource Center and Western's Office of Public Safety in the event.
"Mac's Karaoke is a local DJ, and he's been doing the block party for about four or five years at least. We enjoy him and so do the students every year," Allison said. "We like to do whatever we can to make it a good time because this is the Union's way of saying thank you to the students for another good year."
In past years there have been other activities at the party, such as inflatable bounce houses, and the committee tries to be as resourceful as possible with their budget, Allison added.
"Our main focus is the free food and drinks and music, and then we try to add as we plan," Allison said. "We had great weather this year, and it seemed like we had a big crowd this year. This is the first time we ever ran out of food before the party was over."
South of the Union Plaza, OPS facilitated their drunk driving exercise. Trent Robertson, OPS officer, said that he enjoys being a part of the Union Block Party each year and educating students on the seriousness of drunk driving.
"It's pretty fun to do, and people have a good time with it," Robertson said. "When we set up the course we don't really want people to fail, but when they put the goggles on they're going from sober to a .08 BAC, so people have a little trouble driving."
The exercise consists of a driving course made out of cones, which students drive through on a golf cart. After the first run through, students are given a choice between two pairs of fatal vision goggles, which simulate how one would see with a blood alcohol content of .08 either at night or in daytime.
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