As renovations in the Student Union came to a close after two years, the Union celebrated by hosting a carnival Thursday afternoon.
The Union Carnival featured a variety of games and activities for students, workers and families to participate in, including Pop the Jayhawk, in which players throw a ball at a stuffed Jayhawk hanging from a wall.Related:
Student Union celebrates renovation completion
Other activities were a lollipop game, spinner wheel, Skee-Ball, bottle ring toss, Plinko, high striker and Guess the Radina’s Coffee Bean. Artists provided caricature drawings, henna tattoos and balloon animals.
Attendees could curb their appetites with the provided refreshments, including gourmet popcorn, cotton candy, Pepsi products and candy bars. Passers-by could also enjoy music being played on the sound system.
Carnival volunteers Julia Hall, human resource department worker and junior in marketing, and Camila Rivera, UPC graduate advisor and graduate student in architecture, both said they were pleased with the turnout, students and non-students alike.
“We had a lot of people show up, a lot of education members,” Hall said.
The Union hosted a variety of other events this week to celebrate its two-year renovation.
Some students in attendance said the carnival was their first Union event of the week, and that they only stopped by for the free items. Few said they had been to all or most of the week’s events.
Alexus Lacy, senior in mass communications, said she had gone to all of this week’s events and decided to stop by the carnival while hanging out at the Union.
Shaunessy Phillips, freshman in mechanical engineering, said she stopped by for the free caricature drawings.
The Union’s week of renovation celebrations began with free bowling at Wabash Cannon Bowl and ended with the display of a photographic timeline of the Union renovation in the William T. Kemper Art Gallery.
Many of the events were held in the Union Courtyard. They included free samples and giveaways from the Union’s restaurants and business partners, live music with ice cream, a carnival with a variety of prizes and a dedication ceremony with 2,017 balloons dropped with even more prizes inside of the balloons.
Both Hall and Rivera said they saw the week as successful. Rivera said it was a success because it got people out of their shells, making them more involved K-Staters. Rivera said she estimates that a few hundred people stopped by the carnival on Thursday.
“I think everyone had a great time,” Hall said.
Tours of the newly renovated Student Union will be given Saturday morning as part of the 89th annual Kansas State Family Day.
