By Clara Corjulo| Staff Writer
The Office of Student Activities invited students to their latest Friday Night Live event: “Winter Olympics Kickoff” which allowed students the opportunity to enjoy the Sochi Winter Olympics opening ceremony live on the big screen. Here they were able to enjoy food, games, an oxygen bar, virtual snowboarding, photo magazine covers, trivia, prizes and more. The event took place on February 7, 2014, in the Wakehurst building, which ran from 8pm to midnight.
Mary Crimmins, Assistant Director of Student Activities and Co-Advisor of the Mosaic, stated: “We thought it would be a fun event for the students to watch it on a 14-foot screen… It’s a fun bonding experience outside of Salve that kind of unites everyone here.”
Upon entry, the door was outlined with only a few of the ninety-one national flags for the countries participating this year. Along with the United States, some included China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Italy, Jamaica and so forth.
The lobby contained a screen standing in front of a projector surrounded by signs posted at various areas in the room. These signs listed directions to activities or information regarding upcoming events during the night. In the other room stood another that was to show the Opening Ceremony. Behind the rows of seats and tables were an array of refreshments that included large pretzels, chips and bean dip, cupcakes with the Olympic rings adorning the top in frosting, refreshments and Virtual Snowboarding platforms.
The room was packed with around seventy-five people (both students and staff) with a long line at the food tables.
As the students gathered around the screen, the ceremony had begun introducing the countries/teams competing this year. Beginning with Greece because it was where the first Olympics took place.
Yana Grigoryeva, one of the participating students provided her own input of the Olympics. “I am a fan of the Winter Olympics…I think the opening ceremony is always the biggest spot.”
As the night progressed, students ventured from watching the ceremony while snacking to playing Olympic Trivia (in which the prizes included gift cards to iTunes, Stop & Shop, and Dominos), virtual snowboarding, getting their pictures taken for the magazine covers, and hanging out by the Oxygen bar until slowly dispersing back to their dorms.
