Don’t Worry – I Got the Coverage!
Event: Annual Fall Campus Day
When: Saturday– November 9, 2013
My Role: Team Leader–Vari Hallers group
Let the fun begin….
As I walked through Vari Hall, the campus was in full preparations for the monumental occasion. I arrived on campus at 7:30 a.m., and couldn’t help myself from clicking the camera away. At 8.am. most of the Vari-Hallers were here, we talked about some last minute arrangements, danced, cheered, and headed to our first destination. Over 200 awesome, volunteers signed up to help with Fall Campus Day. All the teams were assigned different destinations on campus.
Our first stop was helping ourselves to coffee that was served throughout the day in Vari Hall for guests and staff to enjoy. Our first destination was Accolade East building, two people across from each other, we staggered though out the hall, and three of the team members were soldiering it outside welcoming guests and directing them in the hall, so no guest would have to walk in the cold. (We eventually switched with them because we felt bad, but they were the real troopers.) By now, volunteers in red were everywhere on campus. We must have welcomed over a thousand guests! Just amazing! The campus was happening, it was the place to be!
Visitors could have planned their day online in advance or on the day of. Professors, students, volunteers and staff members were all under one location. Guests could have taken faculty specific, and residence tours, spoken to a current student, engaged with professors, explored programs of their choice, and visit one of the booths set up for many aspects to life at York. Check out Kira’s blog on how you can plan, and make the most of your visit.
As we were heading to our next destination, we started our first cheer – “Deep in the Heart…”before we know it everyone had joined in. After our second destination; we headed for lunch, there was nothing stopping our cheers, everywhere we went people joined in. If someone else started, we joined in! The YORK U SPIRIT had been manifested in its entirety! Campus was busy, people stopped, smiled, joined in, looked at us, and many visitors told our team that they loved our York U Spirit which only gave us all the more reasons to “shout a little louder!” I had many visitors and students ask me how they can be a part of Fall Campus Day, because it was like Frosh Week all over again. You bet it was!
Cheer 2 “Whoz in da House?…,”
Cheer 3 “When I say red….”
Cheer 4”The mighty, mighty lions…”
York U Lion was in the house too; busy welcoming guests, while posing for photographs with all. For those who wanted to capture the memories forever, well you could have! By instagraming photographs with the #yucmapusday hashtag, as there was a photo print service in Vari Hall. All pictures with the #yucampusday were being printed. The entire campus was in high spirits; our team collaborated with many other groups and did combined cheers! We did cheers with the Schulich team, Fine Arts, Tours guide, Liberal Arts and Professional Studies, any anyone else who wanted to join in the fun! The biggest cheer started from the second floor in Vari Hall and ended with our team on the first floor. This wonderful day ended with a York U dance performance by all the volunteers.
Volunteers were available every step of the way to guide guests. Many of my wonderful team members, personally walked visitors to their cars, and helped visitors find their parking spots and other locations they were looking for on campus. The response from all the guests and team members was very positive about this whole experience. I was asked on several occasions from prospective students and current students regarding how they can be a part of Fall Campus Day, and how they can maximize their campus involvement? I will be doing a separate blog post for all of you, answering your questions, and giving you tips on how to get involved on campus, so watch out for my coming blogs!
Were you a part of the annual Fall Campus Day this year, and how was your experience? As always, if you have any further questions, I would love to be of help! Be sure to join us on April 5, 2014 for the Spring Open House. I know, I’ll be there to welcome you all!
Safe travels till then!
Katie Downey
we missed the fall tour and would be interested to see the Criminology department and the residence sometime in Dec. Is that possible.