Highline’s Running Start Club (RSC) hosted an Animal Crossing themed social event, Bells and Blooms, last Thursday. It was created for people to get to know others in the Highline community and build connections.
Hosted by the RSC, the event was staffed by volunteers, and students (both running-start and not) attended the event. Attendees were kept entertained by activities including coloring pages, bead necklaces, flower crowns, henna, and more.
RSC was founded two years ago with the intention of creating a space for running start students at Highline. This club aims to connect and inform running start students through club meetings and campus events.
RSC hosts events fairly frequently ranging from social events, like Bells and Blooms, to informational events. One of the advisors for the RSC spoke about the amount of work and effort that are put into their events. They have the confines of their budget, having to find activities that match their theme, and find volunteers to help set up and work each event. All of the themes and events are created by the students in RSC.
Social events like these are meant to encourage meeting new people and be fun for the campus. Running start advisor, Kristina Nguyen, said “I heard people introducing themselves,” at the event. She said events like these are helpful to the students by building community and friendships and that they didn’t use to have events like these before the Running Start Club was founded.
A volunteer at the event talked about how these were fun for both the students and volunteers. They also mentioned that it was helpful to students, letting them meet new people and enjoy their campus.
Many people were drawn into the event because of the free food, which included pizza, sweets, and a self-serve Italian soda station. A popular thing at this event was that they gave away balloon pets. They had varying species of animals that would get “adopted” by students. People were encouraged to name them and they walked them around the event. It was not only a fun spectacle, but also a good conversation starter among the students.
Isabelle Botzum, a student that attended this event, said she “liked the food and activities,” saying that she “enjoyed making the flower crowns”.
T, another student at Highline, said that they heard of the event through the campus advertising. He said that they had a rather broad selection of activities at the event and that the free food was definitely a positive.
Although all of this is relatively new in the scope of Highline’s history, it has made a large and lasting impact on our community.