The first annual Badger Bash on Sept. 29 was supposed to be a huge barbecue party set to coincide with the soccer match against both the men’s and women’s teams of Husson College, Maine. Instead, there was almost no student turnout and the tables had to be taken down early due to rain.

The event was small and focused: there was a speaker playing party music, a buffet table with hamburgers and vegetarian patties provided by SODEXO, a beach ball that was being passed around, and a table of raffle prizes provided by the Johnson-based Ebenezer Books, as well as JSC sports gear provided by Wendy Velander from the SHAPE Facility and Michael Osborne from Athletics.

There were less than a dozen JSC students at the Bash at any given time, including the students volunteering to run the stands. Some of the parents of the soccer team’s players stopped by, and passed onto the athletics field to get spots on the bleachers.

When the rain fell, the party was over, the raffle prizes were put away, and the hamburgers rapidly cooled to room temperature. The soccer games simply continued without the Bash.

After the event, Coordinator of Student-Athlete Development and Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach Kristin Cannon began to brainstorm ways to improve the next Badger Bash. When asked about the main obstacle of the Bash, she said, “I think there’s a couple different factors. We did organize it pretty quickly [so] the advertising definitely didn’t get out in an efficient amount of time.”

She went on to say, “I hope if we get out there soon enough, they can kind of plan this day on campus that weekend and have a good time up there at the event.” As for the inclement weather, she said, “I think the weather may or may not have been a factor. I don’t know if it were a sunny day, if more people would have been up there.”

Cannon also noted that the party was far away from the campus square, in a corner where few students would pass by happenstance. “Some of the students I’ve been working with said maybe [the event should be in] a different location other than the VAC lot. Put it down on the green somewhere,” she said. The reason for the odd location was to be right above the soccer game, with a view of the action as the players ran.

Cannon sees this first Bash as a building block to make later Badger Bashes much more fun for everyone involved. “I think I got some really good feedback from people who went to the Badger Bash, [and from those] who were also helping out and volunteering with it,” she said.

The next Bash will have better food and more activities as a point. “Any sort of competition or game we could have would be really fun for people,” said Cannon. She mentioned that there might be a dunk tank game with a JSC teacher sitting in it, and that she hopes to “learn from this one so the spring event could be even bigger and better.”

And as for why JSC’s badger mascot was not at the Badger Bash, whose poster depicted him dancing, Cannon said “We ended up getting the old badger mascot, and the person who was going to wear it was actually allergic to the dust that was in it. She also had a game that day, and she wanted to be a part of that.”

She closed by saying, “With time to prepare, more helpers, more volunteers, I think it could be a really great event, with the whole campus community and outside community JSC supporters wanting to take part in it.”

The Bash was funded by the CHOICES grant, provided by the National Collegiate Athletic Association. This grant is part of a three-year plan to implement alcohol education and awareness programming, as well as student leadership training.