The Lions' Stadium and the Packer Lot were bustling with students checking out the sights and sounds of the fifth annual LollaNoBooza on Aug. 28. The event, which promotes having fun without consuming alcohol and is run by various campus organizations, boasted a wide variety of activities from sports and carnival games to food and drink.
"This event really makes you want to try everything," Michelle Co, freshman nursing major, said.
There were certainly many activities for attendees to choose from. The stadium was filled with physical games such as Musical Chairs run by the Black Student Union with goldfish as prizes; blow-up mazes, soccer and basketball stations run by the College's wrestling, soccer and basketball teams; and Twister and DDR run by PRISM and the softball team respectively.
Packer Lot, on the other hand, contained carnival games like Ring Toss, which was operated by the Indian American Association, and Tin Can Toss, which Alpha Chi Rho organized.
Also in the lot was free food, drinks and give-aways. Sodexho vendors gave out free Frito, Pepsi, Edy's Dibs, Tropicana, Pepperidge Farm and Sweet Tooth products.
Synergy, as well as various multicultural sororities and clubs, offered shakes and "mocktails." The College radio station WTSR 91.3 provided music for the event and gave away a free College sweatshirt to the winner of their sponsored dance-off. There was also an inflatable rock wall run by the cross country team and a Make-Your-Own music videos booth controlled by the Alumni Association.
"The school really outdid itself this year. There is so much to do. Everyone looks like they are having a great time," Dwayne Amos, sophomore political science major, said.
Not only did LollaNoBooza give students fun alternatives to drinking, it was also a great way to introduce freshmen, as well as transfer students and upperclassmen, to the numerous clubs, sports teams and Greek organizations on campus.
"LollaNoBooza sends a great message and it's a more casual environment for freshmen to approach clubs," Erinn Black, senior criminology major, said.
Joe Hadge, coordinator of the Alcohol and Drug Education Program (ADEP), said the event had a large turnout with an estimated 2,500 students attending throughout the night and as many as 1,500 students filling the stadium and the Packer Lot at one time.
Especially happy about the volume of attendants was Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD). They gave out key chains with numbers of local cab companies to encourage students to be designated drivers and to dissuade people from drinking and driving.
"This event is great because it helps our mission and gets our message out," Rachel Sherman, vice president of SADD, said.
This completely free event was financed by grants from both the New Jersey Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
"We wanted this to be a fun event run for students, by students, that also gets the message 'You don't have to drink to have fun' across without forcing it upon everyone," Hadge said. "I hope LollaNoBooza creates discussion that empowers people to make healthy choices."
