Katie Sisk, Campus Carrier Staff Reporter
When grey skies threatened rain this Mountain Day Weekend, many students expressed concern that the 101-year-old Berry tradition would be cancelled. In spite of muddy fields and stormy weather, student and faculty organizers came together to bring Mountain Day activities to campus in unorthodox ways, postponing the Grand March to an as-of-yet undetermined Saturday later in the semester.
It has been quite a while since weather made this much of an impact on Mountain Day scheduling.
Rain has only been an issue a handful of times in the event’s history, according to archived issues of the Carrier.
In 1977, Berry experienced a Mountain Day much like this year’s.
KCAB’s Mountain Day Olympics took place that Friday with no problems. Students enjoyed the egg toss, tug-of-war, a hamburger-eating contest and a variety of other games.
The Grand March that Saturday, however, was canceled and the traditional Mountain Day Picnic was moved into the Dining Hall due to the steady downpour of rain.
In 1997, Marthapalooza had not yet been established, and students were able to end Mountain Day with a dance sponsored by KCAB.
Much like students this past Mountain Day, the students in 1977 expressed their disappointment in the cancelation and urged administration to consider an alternate rain date so that, at the very least students, could still enjoy the festivities.
The most recent instance of rain on Mountain Day took place in 1992. The Grand March and picnic went on as scheduled, however Berry experienced a much smaller crowd then one would anticipate at Mountain Day today with only 3,000 attendees.
This year, even with the rain and changes to the schedule, many alumni, family and friends of Berry still made the trip to Rome.
“My sister’s here, and it’s my boyfriend’s senior year,” alumna Meg Ratliff (‘15) said. “But I also just enjoy Mountain Day, getting to catch up with everyone and the whole spirit of the event.”
Despite the weather, students and guests managed to make the most of the day.
Student enterprises and the entrepreneurship class sold their products on the Krannert porch, Aramark catered a now indoor picnic and Vikings fans came out to cheer on the football team to a 20-13 victory against Washington University in St. Louis.
Even though changes to the set-up and schedule had to be made, students, faculty staff and guests still got to ride carnival rides in Clara Bowl before the game and enjoy other activities at Marthapalooza relocated to the Krannert Ballroom.
“We had 1,200 people in and out that afternoon and 1,000 that night in the ballroom,” director of student activities Cecily Crow said.
In past years, the tentative rain plan has been to move Marthapalooza into the Cage Center, but this year the committee decided to go in a different direction.
“We didn’t really have a definitive rain plan,” said Tyler Kaelin, the head event chair for Marthapalooza. “Thursday we sat down and made a formal rain plan. First time in eleven years we’ve had to resort to our rain plan.”
The decision to fall back on the rain plan was made by administration that morning, and the executive members of the Marthapalooza committee met and worked from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on bringing this traditionally outdoor event inside.
Despite the less then optimal conditions the committee faced, Kaelin was very pleased with their work.
“The farther I get away the more impressed I am by the work the committee produced. It’s easy to take a stance of ‘this isn’t the way it usually is and therefore I don’t like it,’” Kaelin said. “The committee didn’t do that. They stayed positive and kept working hard throughout the day. You wouldn’t have known it was a last minute thing.”