Students visited Brigham Square on the afternoon of Oct. 12 to participate in the noonday activity which consisted of rock climbing, a punching machine and mint brownies.
BYUSA had multiple booths set up where students could participate in an activity and get a brownie. One of the booths had students put a pin on a map to mark where home was for them. There were pins all over the United States but many pins outside as well. European and African countries as well as New Zealand were some of the other places represented.
The other booth had students write a heartfelt thank you note or text to someone who has made their BYU experience great. Many took turns writing these notes before they grabbed a brownie.
There were many volunteers helping run the BYUSA booths, including BYU freshman Camille Williams. Williams is a part of BYUSA and the Blue Crew program which helps run day events on campus.
Williams said her favorite part of noonday activities is the exposure these activities give to various projects on campus. “It’s so easy to promote different organizations and getting people more educated on the programs that we have here like BYUSA,” Williams said.
Alongside the BYUSA booths, some other popular activities included a punching machine and a 30 foot rock climbing wall provided by the Utah Army National Guard and BYU ROTC.
In the punching machine activity, participants were able to punch a bag connected to the machine and receive a score based on how hard they punched. Students could be seen gathered around the machine to watch and cheer on their friends as they participated.
BYU students and sisters Ellie Anderson and Annie Anderson were some of the people that came to climb. “My class got canceled. I passed by here on the way to my class and I was like ‘I know what I’m doing’ once I figured out class was over,” Ellie Anderson said. Annie Anderson said her sister would not stop calling her asking her to come rock climb.
“She was like ‘we gotta do rock climbing’ so I was like, you know, ‘okay fine,” Annie Anderson said.
BYU student Aaron Liatinen was one of the students that came out to participate in the rock climbing. When asked what he was looking forward to the most this homecoming week he said, “Definitely most excited about the game this Saturday, I think BYU is going to win.”
BYU noonday activities will continue on Thursday and Friday of this week and many other events will take place over the weekend. To find the event schedule, head to the BYU homecoming week website.
