By Kara Bentz–Students and faculty know the fun and success of the annual Into the Streets event. What they do not know is how much work and planning goes into this event and how many changes were implemented this year.
This year, Dominique Swanson and Tiffany Brasby served as the co-vice presidents of Into the Streets. They began planning the event in June; meaning it took about six months to plan. The first step was to call organizations and ask if they would like to be a part of this event. Committee members were a large help in completing this task.
Into the Streets has traditionally cost $5,000. Student Government allocates $3,800 of that to Omicron Delta Kappa to assist with this event. Brasby said that they cut costs by $500 this year. She also stated, “President Reynders gave us $1,200 as the remaining 25 percent that was not given by student government. Casey Benton donated cups and napkins and Hy-Vee gave us a discount on juice.” All of these things helped to cut costs for this event.
This year there were several changes implemented to make the event run smoother. First, the registration process was moved to an online format. Swanson stated, “The registration process was a good thing, but it was a transition year. So it was hard.”
The group did not all know to register online, but they anticipate it going better in years to come. During the morning gathering before dispersing to organizations, the groups were to meet in Eppley at their assigned colors. The color coordination of Eppley was a new addition to the process. Brasby explained that this was a new idea to help the morning run quicker. “Everyone was out of the auditorium by 8:30 and that has never happened.”
In previous years, the Into the Streets t-shirts have been various colors. The committee chose to have maroon shirts this year and that was a well-received change.
Lastly, one of the most popular parts of the event is the donuts, and this year the switch to Krispy Kreme donuts was made. This caused much excitement and is a change that is here to stay.
This year, there were a record number of students that participated in the event. Dominique said, “we had 925 by the end of it. This coming year I think they could get 1,000. It will be a difficult goal but achievable. And next year will be the 1oth year so it would be cool to have 1,000 for the decade.”
This year’s Into the Streets was a success due to the hard work of the co-vice presidents, the committee, and all of the participants. Next year should be even better.
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