Fun activities for students before finals

Students didn’t get to swim or slide during “Spring Splash” Wednesday, but they did squirt each other with water guns and toss water balloons during the event in the mall.

Student Government Association sponsored the event to relieve stress before finals.

Jacob Wong, SGA president and psychology sophomore, said the event was “not what we intended, but this is awesome.”

Originally, water slides and a pool were supposed to be set up, but President Robert Zeigler did not approve that April 26 because of Stage 1 drought restrictions.

“Everything we got in place of this is fine,” Wong said Wednesday.

An inflated rock climbing mountain, water tag arena, limbo and water balloon fight were good replacements, Wong said.

The arena was an inflated obstacle course for students to squirt water from guns and throw water balloons at one other.

The arena and rock climbing mountain were furnished by Parties, Picnics and Promotions.

Students were given five water balloons and a squirt gun before entering the arena, Wong said.

Zeigler said a compromise was made with SGA by giving them an opportunity to go on with the event.

Pool and water slides were not approved because they would waste water, Zeigler said. The squirt guns and water balloon tosses constituted “a contained thing in a contained area,” he said.

Students were treated to free hot dogs and fruit at a cost to SGA of $300-$350, Wong said.

Chris McDonald, business management sophomore and support team leader of the Students in Free Enterprise Club, cooked the hot dogs on a barbecue grill.

The Boxing Club sold bottles of water and soda for $1 and cascarones for 25 cents each.

Attendant Edward Hernandez and operations manager Bubba Jones of Parties, Picnics and Promotions harnessed students on rock climbing mountain to prevent falls.

Carrie Hernandez, student activities specialist, said, the only thing that matters is that students have fun.

Brian Robinson, promotions director of KSYM 90.1 FM and radio-television-film sophomore; Matthew Martinez, RTF freshman and KSYM volunteer; and Richard Nolan, DJ of “The Haven” on KSYM, played music at the event.