On any weekend morning, it is a common sight to see Wheaton’s landscape ornamented by beer cans strung onto branches, or remnants of students’ trips to late-night Emerson scattered around campus. This past weekend, the sight was different. Numerous students signed a pledge of sobriety to raise awareness of alcohol misuse and abuse on campus. Collaborating with many on-campus organizations, the Wheaton Athletic Mentors (WAMs) hosted their annual “Big Event.”
The Big Event featured two days of activities ranging from high-energy games to lawn games and a movie screening. On Friday, the Haas Fieldhouse hosted archery tag and knockerball, while later in the evening, “Fruitvale Station” played in Hindle Auditorium, courtesy of BACCHUS.
“Years ago, the premise of The Big Event was to promote an alternative to drinking and promoting a sober weekend. What we try to do is piggyback on other groups that are also holding events on campus,” said WAM Coord
On Saturday, the WAMs held their annual carnival, where from 5-7 p.m. all members of the Norton community were welcome to visit, and later on it was exclusively open to Wheaton students. Later, a dodgeball tournament was played and to cap the night off at midnight, a 3×3 basketball tournament battled it out.
“As far as WAMs go, our goals are to help underclassmen on our teams, but our greater goal for the future is to work with other clubs and organizations to create a better relationship between athletics and academics,” WAM Co-president Kelly Ludew ’17 said.
All of the events this weekend, according to Ludew, were centered around celebrating sobriety and focusing on fun things that don’t involve drinking.