It takes a village to raise a child — to raise school spirit for Homecoming Week, the University of Idaho Homecoming Committee created an Olympic Village.
At the Olympic Village during Homecoming Week, students were able to race their friends in an inflatable obstacle course, grab some goofy pictures at a photo booth and ask questions directly to the Homecoming Committee.
Diamond Koloski | Argonaut
Seniors Stephan Jutila and Evan Barton compete to finish the inflatable obstacle first during the Olympic Village event Tuesday morning.
Bailey Thomas, fundraising chair on the Homecoming Committee, said everyone she interacted with at the event loved to participate.
“It’s a lot of fun. I think the most important part is just like, keeping the energy up and making sure everyone is getting pumped for homecoming,” Thomas said. “It’s the greatest time of the year.”
Thomas said when she does events like this, she found that people fall into one of three levels of engagement. Some people will walk right up and ask about the event, others will do some talking once they are approached by others and some people will simply not participate, which Thomas said is fine, too.
“There’s a big inflatable maze right here, I’d be curious,” Thomas said. “It kind of advertises itself.”
One student drawn in by the Olympic Village was sophomore Caitlin Klaeui.
“I heard there was an obstacle course, so I was like, ‘I’ll come by and check it out and see what’s going on,’” Klaeui said. “I actually don’t know about anything that’s here. I just came here for fun.”
Klaeui’s racing partner in the obstacle course was freshman, Jennifer McFarland. McFarland predicted Klaeui would win, but she ended up on top.
“That was actually faster than I thought it would be. It was fun,” McFarland said. “She was like ‘Hey, wanna come do this?’ and I’m like, ‘OK, why not?’”
McFarland said she looks forward to more homecoming events.
“I’ve already been super excited for it,” McFarland said. “I never went to a normal high school, and so I’ve been excited about all these things, like football games and the hype of this.”
Solomon Danger also participated in the event, along with his friends. He put on a pair of beer-themed goggles for pictures in the photo booth.
“Personally, I don’t really like pictures of myself, so I feel like if I’m already putting myself out of my comfort zone, I might as well go for what’s familiar, which in this case is beer,” Danger said.
Thomas said she has worked with the event for three years and learns something new every time.
“We should have ordered more swag, like buttons and stuff, but it’s cool we have this,” Thomas said. “I think this is going well. We have a lot of committee support, which is good.”
The event had more opportunities than just fun, though. Thomas said the Homecoming Committee answers a lot of questions about homecoming during the event.
“We’re here all day, and you can come talk to us and anything,” Thomas said.
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