Homecoming committee hosts a carnival to remember

The aroma of cotton candy and popcorn filled the air of the quad, along with the laughs and cheers of students playing carnival games. Popcorn and cotton candy were given out for free. And not to mention the free face painting! There’s nothing more appealing than the classic American carnival. The Santa Monica college homecoming committee and cheer team put on a delightful carnival event in the SMC quad on Oct. 27 during activities hour. Being Spirit Week, the carnival was beneficial to enhancing Corsair school spirit and getting students excited for the Homecoming game.

Students left the carnival with elaborate colorful artwork on their faces, literally turning the heads of peers passing by. The carnival featured a selfie booth where students could take pictures of themselves and a variety of carnival games with prizes. A goal of one of the games was to throw a football through a hole, this was only appropriate considering the Homecoming football game being a few days away.

"We're here to create positivity," SMC cheer coach, Jessie Moorehead said. “We're running carnival activities, and hoping to create a positive attitude around the campus."

The team performed a cheer routine and handed out fliers promoting spirit week. "I think that it's a great event," Moorehead said. "It's supposed to be a pep rally today, but with a carnival theme. [...] It's just to get students excited for the big game that's happening on Saturday."

DJ One (Jeffery Givens) with Lonestar Entertainment performed remixes and mashups of popular songs while many students danced along. The music lured students into the event as they walked through the quad. This atmosphere, including the free food and carnival games sparked a sense of school spirit in students.

Many of the students who attended the event had no idea it was happening until they walked by. Some of them did not even have intentions to go.

"Actually, I wasn't planning to come," student Jocelyn Guitron said, "but now since I came to the event, I kinda changed my mind."

When asked if she will attend homecoming game after participating in carnival event, Guitron said, "I've never really been to a football [game] here on campus, but it seems like it's going to be really fun and interesting." This feedback shows that the cheer team and Homecoming committee made their impression and met their goal to promote Corsair spirit.

Another student, Taylor Yahne, shares her excitement of the event, “I love that SMC does stuff like this," she said. "My old school never promoted school spirit or anything.” Yahne never thought of community colleges to have school spirit. School spirit, as she describes, was typically a “high school thing.”

With over 30,000 students at SMC, building a sense of community can be difficult. For Santa Monica College to have so many students excited about homecoming week reflects the effectiveness of this particular event.

"I've been going around giving fliers to people, I've been going around to students asking them if they're going to come out to the game," Aicha Conde, A.S. Director of community relations, said. "We're trying to build a culture here, where students feel like everybody is invited."

[embed width="640" height="480"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKQsDhc0Lhs[/embed]