Family Day is an annual fall semester event that had many families show up and have fun with their students. Even with the rain on Saturday’s event, nothing stopped people from going to different events held on Family Day.
The day started with students and their guests checking into the event at the Beckerman Recreation Center. Check-in was busy, according to Ally Kocivar, the Center for Student Engagement, Leadership and Orientation’s (CSELO’s) associate director for programming. Kocivar said that about 1,900 people registered, with many more getting tickets day-of.
“Folks seemed excited to be here,” Kocivar said in relation to the busy check-in. Kocivar also said that despite the weather, “people still seemed excited” and the rain “didn’t seem to dampen [families’] mood at all.”
The excitement could be seen in the large number of people that showed up to different events held under Family Day.
The Multi-Activity Court in the Rec Center had rows of chairs filled at 10:30 a.m. when the University of New Haven Interim President Sheahon Zenger held a welcome speech for the families.
Many events were canceled due to the rain, such as the Inflatable Fun Fest and the Lawn Games, however, it was easily replaced by a board game event with a cotton candy machine in the German Club.
Other events were able to get moved, such as the movie night at 7:30 p.m. that originally presented The Little Mermaid in the Bixler/Gerber quad, which was moved to the Bucknall Theater.
And some events such as the Grit n’ Wit from 4 to 7 p.m. at Kathy Zolad Stadium along with other indoor events were still held at their designated times and locations.
According to Kocivar, all these Family Day events are brainstormed and planned starting in the July prior to the fall semester, and even advertise it during the summer’s Student Orientation, Advising and Registration. “We know for our first-year families, it’s especially important since it’s their first time and first opportunity hearing about the event,” said Kocivar. “So we want to make sure they know what it is and plan accordingly for their schedules. We work with a couple of other offices on campus to plan the different events that happen on Family Day.”
CSELO worked with a multitude of student affairs offices for the day such as the Office of Residential Life who held their open house at 2 p.m., and the Myatt Center for Diversity and Inclusion who held their open house at 2:30 p.m.
Some campus organizations that had helped out were the Undergraduate Student Government Association and the Student Committee of Planning and Events, the latter of which held the Inflatable Fun Fest that turned into the rainy-day board game event.
And even with the rain, students and families still showed up showing off their Charger Pride by wearing New Haven gear, according to Kocivar.
“I love getting to see students and their families interact with us,” said Kocivar. “It’s just so nice to see that even the families are invested just as much in our campus community as our students.”
If you’re interested in attending CSELO’s other events, check out their Charger Connection page or their Instagram page unewhavencselo.
