Last Wednesday, many students gathered in Helmick Commons to enjoy the annual Student Activities Board (SAB) Fall Carnival, hosted by SAB’s two new sophomore “spirit” chairs, Ashley Dyson and Summer Fields .
According to Dyson, who majors in politics and history, she and Fields are not only new to their positions as spiritual presidents, but also to the SAB executive board in general.
Dyson said it was difficult for her and Fields, a law, politics and society, English and sociology triple major, to learn all the moving parts of their new roles.
“Once we got into the swing of things a little bit, though, it was a lot easier to adjust to this new position and plan this carnival event,” Dyson said.
Anna George, a junior who serves as SAB’s vice president of programming, said she believes the fact that Dyson and Fields were brand new made the carnival better than before.
“I always think it’s good when the people planning it have never done the event before, because there are usually new ideas they bring to the table,” George said. “So they don’t feel like they have to do what previous chairs have done.”
Dyson and Fields changed many aspects of the carnival from last year. According to Fields, one of his main goals for this year was to rearrange the inflatables and games so that the event feels less “congested” than in years past.
“We tried this year to spread things out and really use all of Helmick, not just the front end,” Fields said.
Fields also said they chose to take out some of the attractions that didn’t get as much attention last year and swap them out for things people might want to do.
“Like, we added just a regular bounce house because you don’t see regular bounce houses at grown-up parties anymore,” Fields said.
Additionally, Dyson said they decided to invite Fermata the Blue, Drake’s mixed acapella group, to perform in addition to the Brocal Chords, who also performed last year.
“I think that added a lot more variety,” Dyson said.
The last major change Dyson and Fields made to the carnival was to invite a Drake student, junior Cameron Lee-Parker, to draw caricatures for the event instead of hiring a professional.
“We wanted one of our student artists because I thought that would add a more personal touch to the atmosphere,” Dyson said.
All in all, both Dyson and Fields consider the carnival a success, as the students who attended seemed to have a lot of fun. Each said it was hard to choose their favorite aspect of the event.
“I think my favorite part of the carnival was seeing it all come together after planning it all summer … and seeing everyone happy,” Fields said. “The food has been a big hit, so I guess that makes the food my favorite.”
Although the carnival has just passed, the spirit chairs are looking forward to the two upcoming events they have planned for the month of October: the “Taste of Des Moines” food festival on October 12 and the Halloween Spooktacular, that will take place occur in Olmsted around Halloween.
While not all the details of the Spooktacular have been finalized, Dyson said they already have several fun events lined up, including a haunted tunnel, an arcade and a mechanical bull.
“Trust me, there are a lot of other fun things planned that can’t be revealed at this time,” Dyson said, encouraging students to attend if they want to find out what fun things the SAB has in store for the night.
