Regent’s Ultimate Snow Day
For the second weekend in a row, snow has fallen in Virginia Beach, and the Regent University campus is closed. This makes me think of last week when the roads were blocked and classes canceled. What were Regent students to do on a good, old-fashioned snow day? Have a campus-wide snowball fight, of course!
On Friday, January 21, all Regent students were invited to a campus-wide snowball fight in the quad. This gathering led to students making snow angels, building forts, and creating sculptures.
The completely spontaneous event was jump started by junior John Klaves, a Resident Assistant (RA) in the Constitution Hall of the Regent Commons. “The [notion of a] snowball fight started the night before when my hall was intending to go out for a snowball fight [in the morning],” Klaves stated. After challenging RA Sophia Wilson’s hall to join the fight, they decided not to stop there. “This sparked the idea of ‘Let’s just invite everyone.’ So I started by inviting the ResLife team and then moved towards inviting the CM team.” Before long, every hall in the Regent Commons was notified, and students were showing up ready for a day in the snow.
The snowball fight itself was an opportunity for students to just have fun and come together with their peers. “There were people asking me, ‘What are the rules?’ or ‘What are the teams?’’ said Klaves, and he answered, “It’s completely up to you. Just be safe and have fun!”
The freedom to partake in such an experience created a great environment for students to connect with new people. Everyone was forming alliances, building snow walls, and working towards one common goal: hit someone with snow while not getting hit with snow yourself!
Sophomore Laurin Sharpe shared her take on the snowball fight, saying, “It was an extremely fun experience, and I felt like I got to connect and just have fun with a lot of new people.” Like many others, Sharpe loved the opportunity to be silly and play in the snow. “I mean, I got hit in the face a couple times,” she said, “and I loved watching Abbie smack people in the face with big mounds of snow.”
Despite all the fun, one of the biggest takeaways was the bonding and teamwork that occurred. Junior Carlee MacPherson, who considers her snow day a core Regent memory, talked about just that: “People who had never met before were joining together to take on new groups, and that was so funny but also so sweet to watch!”
Overall, this was what Klaves wanted when starting the snow day festivities: students having space to enjoy themselves and get to know each other.
“I think spontaneous events at Regent are important because it enables and empowers students to host events themselves,” he said. “There doesn’t necessarily need to be an organization or student leaders to create events. Instead, students have the ability to go out and just have fun and build community without any limits.”
As we enjoy another winter wonderland today, I’m excited to see how students will enjoy the snow this time.
All Photos taken by John Klaves