By Matthew Villanueva, Features Editor
St. Bonaventure University will be holding Fall Fest next Saturday, Oct. 17. Hosted by Professor Kristen Ryan’s event and sponsorship marketing class, Fall Fest will be a campus-wide, student-only event including six distinct activities: trivia, pumpkin painting, cornhole, kickball, frisbee golf and “The Price is Right” grocery game show.
Each event is sponsored by local businesses: The Haunted Hinsdale House, The Burton, The Other Place, Wegmans, Fusion on Main, and Holiday Valley. There will also be a food tent at the event with individually packaged snacks for students. Students are also recommended to bring a donation of paper products such as tissues, paper towels or hygiene products to donate to the Genesis House of Olean, the local shelter.
The class was split into three sections: promotional, sponsorship and logistics.
The event would not be possible without Ryan’s contributions.
“[Rob DeFazio, Mary Frac and I] came up with the idea to have a campus-based event to give students, in a very unusual semester something to look forward to,” said Ryan. “While typically in this class students create sponsorship packages and go out and solicit funds from sponsors, we decided this year we could turn things around and make this event something that gives back to the generous community partners that have supported us for years.”
Ryan was also assisted by two graduate assistants including Mark Vaccaro. Vaccaro oversaw the logistics and sponsorship division.
Vaccaro continued the descriptions of his duties leading up to Fall Fest. “The club I oversee, C4, has also been working with the event has been working with other local restaurants in the community and I will be running the trivia station at the event.”
Nathan Prisella, senior marketing major, described his experience in the class, “This event is going to happen thanks to our classes “all in” approach that Professor Ryan has been preaching. Everyone in class knows their part they need to accomplish.”
Prisella also described the precautions used by the class because of the pandemic.
“In order for people to come and have fun they need to know they are going to be safe and not prone to get sick,” he said. “That’s why we’ve set up precautions and protocols for the event such as the need to pre-register for the event, scheduling the events out to ensure no crowds are formed when people are moving, even more importantly making sure everything is sanitized before and after people use it.”
Tyler Carro, senior marketing major and head of logistics for the event, said “the aim of our event is to help out to local businesses that have always so generously helped the Bonaventure community.”
Victoria Wangler, senior English major and head of the promotions group, specified the class was not alone in their efforts.
“Several offices on campus have helped in our efforts,” said Wangler. “Mary Frac [from Center of Activities, Recreation and Leadership], Rob DeFazio [from student life], Jennifer Pulver [director of graphic design] and Beth Eberth [from the office of Communications].”
Wangler also explained that on the day of the event, each student in the class will help to set up, run and take down the event.
Ryan said she was very proud of her students’ work saying, “the students have done an amazing job running with the idea and turning the idea into a reality.”
Students can register for the event by scanning the QR code on the poster in the Notice Board. They can also search for “Fall Fest” in the SBU Connect app and click the Qualtrics link to register for activities at the fest. Attendees MUST register prior to attending. COVID safety measures, such as sanitation, social distancing and mask enforcement, will be in place. Fall Fest registration closes on Thursday, Oct. 15 at 11:59 p.m.
villanjv18@bonaventure.edu
