At 7:30AM on a typical Saturday morning, not many Yalies are out and about on Old Campus. However, a few weekends ago, 24 freshmen were wide-awake and ready for an amazing day: the freshman barbeque.
In the middle of September, after I had a chance to meet most of my peers in Berkeley College, I ran for the Freshman Class Council (FCC). An affiliate organization to the Yale College Council (YCC), the FCC is in charge of freshmen affairs on campus, which includes issues and daily life, communication to the freshman class, and planning extraordinary events for the class of 2014. The FCC typically organizes a barbeque in autumn, a dance in the winter, and the freshmen Olympics in the spring.
Back to the barbeque. After reserving Old Campus, speaking with Yale Dining Services about the event, and asking a few residential colleges to borrow their grills for the day, we had the barbeque basics. However, the FCC did not stop there! We chose a country theme for the day and called it a “Hoedown Throwdown.” To get our class pumped up about the barbeque, we learned the entire Miley Cyrus dance, as featured in her film “Hannah Montana: The Movie,” and filmed a promotional video. Check it out!
After a ton of planning and preparation, we were ready to get going on Saturday morning. We picked the perfect November day: it was not too warm, but cold enough to make the hot Apple Citer taste delicious. We brought all the grills and carts of food to the center of Old Campus, set up a speaker system to play our country tunes, spiced it up with a few awesome signs, and started to heat up the grills!
We grilled up burgers, hot dogs, and veggie burgers, and had plenty of chips, cookies, fruit, and blondie brownie bars for everyone to snack on.
After filling a plate of food, everyone grabbed a spot on Old Campus to soak in the autumn atmosphere with friends.
The FCC also set up a variety of other “hoedown” activities, including “Gettin’ Hitch’d,” musical chairs, and even a pie-eating contest!
Okay, so maybe we got a bit carried away with the pie eating contest…
Coordinating the freshman barbeque was a ton of work, but it definitely paid off. All of the FCC members had a great time grilling an awesome lunch for the freshman class. Overall, the barbeque was a huge success and gave everyone a chance to slow down, relax, and hang out with friends.
