Wednesday, January 7, 2009

WLUSU Is Cooking Up A Winter Storm

The Sputnik January 7th, 2009

Students, get ready to be hit by a blizzard - a blizzard of fun, that is! WLUSU has a whole week of delectable activities planned for Laurier Brantford beginning January 26th. Amanda Flanagan, head of the 2009 Winter Carnival Executive Committee, likens the carnival to a second O Week where there will be a lot activities that students can get involved in, have loads of fun and win some prizes. Although, different from O Week, students will get the chance to form their own teams of ten to 15 members with two captains heading each team. ‘It’s going to be a week of random activities,’ says Amanda, and teams can have their members participate in activities that interest them and according to their availability. Keeping in mind that students still have classes to attend, WLUSU has a schedule of events so that students can make the most of the activities planned. ‘We don’t expect students to say, “OK, I’m not going to class for a week because it’s Winter Carnival”.’


The carnival’s flexible structure will most certainly help facilitate students’ participation in it’s activities. Amanda explains that the carnival will be a good chance for students to get to know one another. She feels that Laurier Brantford needs to boost it’s school spirit, and the Winter Carnival’s main objective is geared towards just that. ‘I find that [is] extremely important in Brantford because we don’t have varsity teams.’ Amanda explains.

Students can look forward to such fun activities as a cheer-off competition, a fort-building competition, some relay races and regatta games. There will also be a scavenger hunt where, at the beginning of the week, teams will be given a list of items which they will collect and hand in at the end of the week. Each item will carry different points. Amanda hints that the items may vary from maybe a pen to a goat. Teams will have to exercise their full resources to secure such item as a goat! ‘I feel like I can say with confidence that the winter carnival has something for everyone.’ Indeed.

Although the Winter Carnival is a continuing tradition at Laurier Brantford, Amanda explains that this is the first time that there has been a concerted effort to organize it into a full week of events. ‘Winter carnival every year has been so different that you could call it so many different things,’ says Amanda. WLUSU began planning for the carnival way back in November when it was still warm and sunny. It’s executive committee was hired to better organize specific components of this year’s event. ‘Last year’s was just thrown together at the last minute,’ Amanda recalls. Of this year she says, ‘…we took the structure out of Waterloo campus and kind of brought it here(to Laurier Brantford).’

Teams intending to participate are required to register at the Peer Connect Desk on either January 19th or January 21st. There will be a registration fee of $15C for each team. According to Amanda, there are already two full teams registered to participate and she expects there to be a lot more in the coming week. She hopes the Laurier Brantford Winter Carnival will continue with the support of the student body. ‘It’ll just be our tradition from here on out,’ she says with a determined nod. With WLUSU’s hard work and Laurier Brantford students’ participation, this annual event promises to be the start of a tradition that we can all be proud of.

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