On April 26th the University of Maryland put together it’s annual Maryland Day event. The campus was crowded with students, faculty, staff, alumni families and many others from the Maryland community.
The campus was flooded with people going between the Clarice Smith School of Performing Arts to watch a performance and the Main Administration building to hang out with Elmo.
Sophomore communications major Ali Saltz is an intern for Cheryl Plainte, the marketing director of Maryland, and said that preparation for the event takes the entire year to plan.
The campus was divided into Ag Day Avenue, Terp Town Center, Arts Alley, Biz Societ Hill, Sports and Rec Row and Science and Tech Way. Each destination had interactive activities or had discussions like the University of Maryland Extension’s Home and Garden Information Center who helped answer gardening questions.
President Wallace Loh said in an email to the school that 80,000 people attended in the event. Saltz said that this included even earlier planning than before and making sure the event was set up and could go off without a hitch.
The event began at 10 a.m. and Saltz had to be there at 7:45 a.m. to help set up and make sure the event ran smoothly. Saltz said that the event happens whether there is rain or shine but the sunny weather contributed to the event’s success.
At 3 p.m. people were encouraged to make their way down to Byrd Stadium to participate in breaking the Guinness World Record for largest drum circle.
Throughout the day tents lined the campus and each had representatives from many student organizations. At the “big top” tent in the middle of the Mall, organizations like the Argentine Tango Club and the Maryland Drumline showed some of the skills they have been working on throughout the school year.
Junior education and Spanish major, Olivia Kelly is a part of the Maryland Adventure Program (MAP), which is a group that leads students on things like outdoor adventure trips and leadership workshops. In addition to these trips, MAP is in charge of the campus rock wall, a bike shop and an equipment rental program. The student-run organization encouraged people at Maryland Day to go to their rock wall and try many of their other services.
“Maryland Day was important for us because a lot people don’t know we exist or have never seen what we have to offer,” Kelly said. “Maryland Day is an amazing way to show people how awesome we are and to give people a fun opportunity to try out our facilities.”
The activities offered at Maryland Day ranged from MAP’s rock climbing to the Computer Science Department’s lesson on writing code. The Department taught participants how to write a few lines of Python, which they described as an “easy-to-learn programming language.”
The food offered along the mall ranged from Maryland favorites like crab cakes and University of Maryland staples like Green Tidings.
“Since Green Tidings has been out of commission lately I was really happy they were at Maryland Day because I missed eating there,” sophomore criminology major Carly Farkas said.
In addition to the crab cakes and organic grilled cheese sandwiches offered, the on campus Dairy sold ice cream at its new location in the Adele H. Stamp Student Union.
People all over campus wore clothing their Terrapin gear and the overwhelming amount of Maryland pride was undeniable.