Fortuna Bowl, sports events, fun to allow families space for bonding.
University’s Parent and Family Weekend, will take place Nov. 10–11 and features new activities as well as timeless traditions.
In the past, the weekend has been the celebration of the university’s homecoming with Fortuna Bowl, the intramural women’s and men’s flag football teams championship.
However, this year campus staff decided to move homecoming weekend to the spring semester and create a new event for students called Parent and Family Weekend.
The three-day event will reach out to the parents and families of current students as well as alumni to bring them on campus and experience some of the best activities CBU has to offer.
Tyler Cox, recreation coordinator for the Office of Community Life, said the presence of parents during this weekend is a new concept for the school.
“We didn’t have a parent’s weekend on campus before,” Cox said. “So the Parent-Alumni Relations Office decided this would be a good weekend to have parent’s weekend. So now it’s parents and family weekend featuring Fortuna Bowl.”
Cox said Friday will be activities for parents such as tours, lunch and the first basketball games. Saturday includes a breakfast, more tours, an afternoon basketball game and Fortuna Bowl in the evening.
The weekend will also feature a fireworks show after Fortuna Bowl and, for the first time after the games, a concert with contemporary Christian artist Kings Kaleidoscope.
Cox said the original reason of why Fortuna Bowl was connected with homecoming weekend was because the attendance was outgrowing the Van Dyne Gymnasium. CBU staff said they wanted to reconnect homecoming weekend with a large event on campus, and they saw the next logical event to be Fortuna Bowl.
Community Life staff said they still wanted an event connected to Fortuna Bowl so they created the Parents and Family Weekend.
“Homecoming grew because of Fortuna Bowl and Fortuna Bowl grew because of homecoming,” Cox said. “Now we have a new Events Center. It’s big enough to hold that amount of people and so the university made the decision, ‘Hey, let’s pair homecoming back with an athletics event.’”
Parents of students received an email inviting them to the event for $10. Students are encouraged to begin signing up their parents as soon as possible because space is limited.
Students will get into the basketball games, the Friday night pre-party and Fortuna Bowl for free.
Games and food trucks will be available on the Front Lawn starting at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday and the women’s flag football game will start at 5:30 p.m., with the men’s game immediately following.
“It will be fun to get a ton of people on campus,” Cox said. “It’s fun when there’s that buzz around an event.”
Libby Otten, sophomore communication disorders major and intern for Comm unity Life, said this event measures up to Midnight Madness, which will take place Nov. 5, as one of Community Life’s biggest events of the year.
“Students should look forward to free giveaways, food trucks, the fireworks show and halftime show,” Otten said. “This is our biggest event so we expect a big turnout.”
