Geneseo Campus Activities Board Special Events teamed up with Colleges Against Cancer to host a Snowball Dodgeball Tournament on Wednesday Feb. 3. Although Geneseo was lacking the much anticipated “snow” for the event, it continued with a game of fun and charitable dodgeball. Despite the event being free—funded by mandatory student activity fees—participants could donate an optional $5 per team which would go directly to Relay for Life.
The event started with GCAB’s own members playing a game of dodgeball. Laughter soon filled the windy Onondaga Field on the spring-like day. The field was rather muddy from the recent weather, which added a challenging obstacle for the players running around the field, but it didn’t deter them from putting in their all. As more students joined, the donations accumulated along with laughter.
There were four matches in total. The GCAB team proved to be a challenging opponent, winning the first game against other students. After mixing up the teams, however, it was hard to place a bet on who would be victorious. At the end of the third game, the losing team had to embarrassingly walk the field in a humorous “crab walk,” creating a lively and light-hearted atmosphere for the event. After all the matches ended, the players were rewarded with hot cocoa and coffee.
The dodgeball tournament is a part of GCAB’s Winter Week, which takes place this year during the first week of February. Winter Week is an annual occurrence; however, this is the first time the group has tried out Snowball Dodgeball.
“Each day [of Winter Week], Special Events has planned and hosted a different event for the school,” e-board member junior Molly Downey said. “We really try to host new events that we hope students will enjoy and make them exciting with fresh ideas.”
GCAB Special Events will be hosting Battle of the Bands with GCAB Valley Entertainment on Thursday Feb. 4 as part of this week of fun. GCAB will also collaborate with Geneseo Late Knight for “Frozen Friday” on Friday Feb. 5—the final day of Winter Week. Downey explained that the event will include “hot chocolate, roasting marshmallows, a live ice sculpting and winter hat decorating.”
Downey emphasized that working together with other campus groups is generally a very successful and rewarding endeavor. “I know how important of a cause [Colleges Against Cancer] is for so many students at Geneseo and I am really interested in GCAB collaborating more on events with other student organizations,” she said. “Our purpose is to benefit students, so that's what I always strive to do.”
Even though the first two events of this year’s Winter Week went very well, Downey admitted that she was skeptical on how the dodgeball event would go.
“When we do brand new events, we can never be quite sure, but it's a good way to gauge where students’ interests lie,” Downey said. After the final match came to an end, however, Downey noted that she was delighted by the success of the event.
“Even though there was no snow, I think [the Snowball Dodgeball] was a success,” she said. “The goal was for everyone to have a good time and I really think that happened.”
Attendees seemed to agree that the event was an overall success and a fun event as well. The laughter and friendly competition of the GCAB event turned an otherwise bland Wednesday afternoon into a great time.