Family Day was packed with over 600 families. Activities included an inflatable fun fest, caricature artists, tours of West Haven, Anatolia the Fire Goddess show, Banachek the Mentalist and Magician and a murder mystery dinner.

The inflatables began in the Bixler/Gerber quad and included obstacle courses, wipeout, meltdown and races. There was also a henna artist, balloon artist and caricature artists.

“Inflatable Fun Fest is a tradition that SCOPE has every year to allow students to have fun with their families,” said SCOPE president Nicole Langlois.

Simultaneously, in the Maxcy quad Anatolia the Fire Goddess performed her interactive fire illusion and ice show. Alicia Key’s “Girl On Fire” played in the background as Anatolia brought up a handful of people to tried to attempt her tricks. She started balancing a crystal ball all over her body and eventually had two volunteers try it. One volunteer remarked that is was not as easy as it looked. This was Anatolia’s third year performing on family day.

“Every year I’m always pleasantly surprised how warm and friendly the families are,” said Anatolia. “I started doing it [playing with fire] as a hobby, then I got hired professionally overseas and I continued doing it.”

She said she is more scared of dropping the crystals on her feet than the fire.

“I thought she was amazing and has talent that is very rare. I wouldn’t be crazy enough to do it!” said parent, Joseph Morra. “The show was fabulous and a good break in the middle of the day. Family day is always a great day to come onto campus and see the events.”

As the day progressed Mentalist and Magician, Banachek, performed in Bucknall Theater. One highlight was his knife roulette trick in which he picked participants to choose knives and stab him. During the trick, he tried to use his mental abilities to persuade the participants to pick the safe knife. He explained to the crowd that out of the five knives, three would not hurt him and two would. All five participants chose the safe knives and Banachek remained unharmed.

“I don’t think that I will actually get hurt, because for me it’s the illusion of danger,” said Banachek.”I think a lot of magicians that do dangerous things, forget it is about the illusion of danger. Even Harry Houdini knew it was the about illusion of danger.”

Family Day ended in the Alumni Lounge, where students and their families were treated to dinner and a show at the Murder Mystery Dinner. The show was interactive, with some guests acting in the show a student being the murderer. The remaining audience was split into teams to solve the crime.

“I really enjoyed the enthusiasm of the students participating in the show,” said actor Kate Hoover. “It was fun to see them interacting with their parents and sharing clues among each other.”

Lisa LaFountaine, a student participant, said that her team was surprised to know they correctly solved the crime.

“It was an awesome dinner filled with mystery and fun,” said LaFountaine. “I can’t wait to do this again next year.”