Each year, Smurthwaite has a semiformal dance during the fall semester. For this year’s Halloween-themed semiformal, members and guests had the option to dress up in costumes or in semiformal wear.
Semiformal was a success, and a great way for Smurthwaite to get into the spirit for Halloween! Our members came up with great costumes including Three Blind Mice, Bonnie and Clyde, and my personal favorite, Taylor Swift in the “You Belong With Me” music video.
Big thanks to our Social Chair, Kaeden Thurber for planning this event! We are all so grateful for the hard work Kaeden put in to this year’s Semiformal.
In a normal year, Smurthwaite’s new members would plan a surprise breakfast for the old members. However, in the current situation, there was a bit of confusion over whether it would be safe to have a meal as a group. So, to adjust for the changes, our new member class decided to start a new tradition – big appreciation week!
At Smurthwaite, each new member gets paired with an old member to be her “big.” Throughout the year, bigs treat their littles with quality time and a small gift here and there. Breakfast is the one thing littles do to treat their bigs, but this year we had to come up with something different.
Our new member co-presidents, Lily and Brianna, came up with the idea to have a whole week of littles showing our appreciation for our bigs. Each day we would do something different for our bigs.
But here’s the twist – breakfast was still going to happen.
At first, we weren’t sure if having a meal as a group would comply with COVID-19 guidelines, but since we usually eat meals in groups anyway, breakfast was approved by our RA and ACDI. As long as no one was required to eat with the group, the breakfast tradition was still on.
On Monday of Big Week, our new member presidents announced what we would be doing, which, until then, had been kept secret from the old members.
Monday morning, each big had notes from their little on their door. Tuesday, each little gave their big a personalized gift basket. Wednesday we gave our bigs quality time coupons, and Thursday we wrote thank you cards and left them under their doors.
One of the notes from a little on Monday.
Throughout the week, the old members loved the new tradition, but never suspected that we would surprise them on Friday. Since we told them it was against the rules, they thought breakfast was definitely cancelled.
Friday morning, the new members started cooking breakfast at 5:30, attempting to be quiet so we wouldn’t wake up the old members. At 6:30, each little went to wake up her big. The old members were surprised!
New members dressed nice and old members in their pajamas on Friday morning
Big was a success! Our new member class had to adapt to a new situation, and we made the best of it. Hopefully, this new tradition will continue for years to come!
At Smurthwaite, we value community service… and, of course, some friendly competition. For our philanthropy event for the semester, we participated in the canned food drive put on by the Hispanic American Leadership Organization. All donations were given to Cats’ Cupboard.
To give members an extra incentive, we made this a floor competition. the top floor, main floor and basement all competed to see who could collect the most items per person.
Smurthwaitians proudly pose with all the food we have collected.
The winner of the floor competition was the basement with 23 items per person. As a house, we collected a total of 457 items to donate to Cats’ Cupboard.
The Fall 2020 semester at K-State has been anything but normal. But here at Smurthwaite, there is one thing that hasn’t changed: we start off strong with Fall Retreat!
As soon as our 14 new members moved in to Smurthwaite, the activities began! The week’s agenda included contests, getting to know campus, and activities for new members to get to know old members of the house.
This year’s theme for the house is (a bit ironically) travel, so our Fall Retreat contest consisted of each team creating a fictional city complete with a flag and a tourist attraction.
Our winning city, “Thiccccville,” created a tourist attraction featuring Kentucky Fried Chicken.
One of our other Retreat activities was a scavenger hunt where teams found different buildings on campus and places to go in town. Our list included the City Park, Varsity Donuts, the Student Union, Lafene Health Center, and multiple other places on and off campus.
We closed out Retreat Week with a Konza hike on Saturday and Convocation on Sunday. The Fall 2020 semester may not be what we expected, but it’s off to a great start!
