Another month has quickly passed. Smurthwaite celebrates many traditions in October. This year beginning with Old Member Sneak. The New Members and Old Members each have their own sneak. Sneak is a tradition that involves all of one group trying to get out of Manhattan for 24 hours without the other group noticing. This results in a sleepover bonding experience for the sneaked members.
This year the Old Members, relatively successfully, ventured off to Wichita where we enjoyed home cooking, a campfire, smores and funny movies. Saturday, some began the day bright and early with some community service. Then we spent the rest of the day catching some deals at an antique store and the mall. Smurthwaite Old Members upped the game this year sneaking off with Smith’s tiger, Freddy Mercury. We’re still awaiting New Member Sneak…
The Smitty-Smurth Ultimate Frisbee Team by Natalie Grills
This fall, our co-rec ultimate frisbee team won second place in the league! Smurthwaite teamed up with Smith to achieve this feat. Up until the final game, we were undefeated. This feels like an even greater accomplishment when last year is taken into account, as we had lost every single game that season.
“This was my first year and I’m so glad I did it!” Rhianna Thomas, 1st year
“I like to have fun while being active, and I feel that intramurals provide the perfect environment for that.” Natalie Grills, 2nd year
“It’s awesome, because it keeps me in shape, and it’s another opportunity for other people to step up as a leader.” MacKenzie Cline, 4th year
“I enjoy being competitive with friends.” Evie Ary, 2nd year
Homecoming by Erica Morgan
It’s that time of year again-homecoming! K-State Alumni hosted yet another homecoming week this fall semester with the Disney theme Manhappiest Place on Earth. Smurthwaite was paired with Honors House to compete against the other residence halls. Each pairing was allowed to choose what characters or movies we wanted to represent. Smurthwaite chose Disney Villains since most of Greek Life was doing Disney Princesses. It turned out to be such a fun theme that allowed us to be very creative and diverse.
It was a fun filled week with lots of late-night shenanigans and good laughs. It was extremely exciting and rewarding to win first place in the residence halls competition. Efforts from each woman in the house is greatly appreciated. I can’t wait to see what next year brings.
Smith House Philanthropy was a Success! By Cami Wells
On Friday, October 18th, Smurthwaite hosted the annual Smith House Fundraiser event for the Fall semester. All members of Smith are required to participate in this event in order to help raise money for their house, but Smurthwaite and Smith make this event one that you would not want to miss! The ladies of Smurthwaite prepare for the fundraiser by forming costume groups for Halloween, planning what they want their group to dress as, collaborating on how much money they are willing to donate, and deciding on which Smith men they would like to have join their groups. When the day of the fundraiser finally comes, Smurthwaite women donate money based on which men they would like to have in their costume groups. This year the Smith House raised a total of $257.75! Along with raising a generous amount of money for the Smith House, Smurthwaite and Smith also use this fundraising event as an opportunity to collect cans and other non-perishable food items to donate to the Flint Hills Breadbasket! The official costume groups among the two houses traveled to various neighborhoods around the Manhattan area on Halloween evening and collected donations. As scholarship houses, we really do try to make the most out of this grand holiday, and what better way to do that than by giving back to our community!
Preparing for Halloween Smurthwaite hosted a pumpkin carving party. Britt’s Farm donated 35 pumpkins and we invited our alumni and brother house. We also encouraged Big/Little pairings to participate in the activity together. Nearly all of the pumpkins were shaped into adorable, disgusting and frightening characters as they came to life throughout the afternoon.
Halloween morning started real early at Smurthwaite this year with another tradition: New Member Breakfast. The new members wake the old members up at 6am to a lovely (this year spooky) breakfast. The new members try to keep the date a surprise and invite each old member a date of some kind- alumni, boyfriend, fiance and Smith boys. Some old members are very sluethy and figure out the date sneakily, but this year some of the old members were also happily surprised. This was a wonderful start to the holiday. The new members did a fantastic job!
We have an exciting Smurthwaite fundraiser right around the corner, and we’re all looking forward to the rest of the holidays on the way and the traditions that come along with them.
With love,
Your Smurthwaite Sisters