By Megan Loock
Elm Staff Writer
On Saturday, Sept. 25, the Student Government Association hosted their first Flock to the Waterfront event since the pandemic at the Hodson Boathouse. The event included activities such as kayaking, tubing, and a cornhole tournament.
Students were greeted with free swag such as SGA frisbees, sunglasses, and a Washington College water bottle — including a mini WC towel inside — as well as “fast food” which included hot dogs, burgers, veggie burgers, and sides.
SGA also gave away free t-shirts to the first 100 people who arrived. Students who requested a shirt at the event were required to give their t-shirt size along with their school email to receive a notification when the shirts have arrived.
For first-year students like Emily Iampieri, who is on the Student Life Committee of SGA, Flock to the Waterfront was a brand new experience.
Iampieri, who was manning the welcome table, said, “It looks like everyone is enjoying the event while I’m sitting down and writing down t-shirt sizes.”
Sophomore Matt Brader, who helped serve food, said he was excited to be there and experience what has only been described to him by upperclassmen.
“[The Hodson Boathouse] is beautiful, for one, and everyone here is so nice, and the weather is so beautiful, so I’m excited,” Brader said.
“I’m just glad we’re all on campus again,” he said. “I’m glad to be on campus for the first time ever and seeing the community and seeing the wonderful environment.”
Secretary of Student Life sophomore Kamden Richardson was responsible for planning the event.
Richardson took her position in SGA during the 2020-2021 academic year when everyone was online and in-person events were very limited or non-existent.
Richardson described planning the event as “stressful” because of these circumstances.
However, because of this fact, she said she “kind of had the creative liberty to kind of just do what [she] wanted with it.”
“It was exciting and nerve-racking at the same time,” Richardson said.
Part of this creative liberty was the addition of the cornhole tournament, something that did not exist in years past.
“I’m from the midwest so cornhole is really big there, and I know a lot of people love it here too, it’s been at a ton of [Student Events Board] events,” she said. “So I just thought it would be the perfect thing to include.”
The tournament started with 14 teams in the bracket — with cornhole boards donated from other organizations on campus such as Kappa Sigma, Phi Delta Theta, the Rowing Team, and SEB — but only one team could win the tournament for a $50 gift card to any Chestertown business of the winners choice.
Team Kornwholio — which was made up of sophomores Parker Hayden and Giancarlo Chelotti — took home the prize. Hayden and Chelotti chose a gift card to The Listening Room, a local record store in downtown Chestertown.
Richardson said that the SGA Student Life Committee is also planning a tailgating event at a WC sports game around the end of October to help support WC’s athletics.
“I’ve been really focused on this, so once this is done, I’ll be able to breathe and then start planning again,” she said.
Photo by Izze Rios