Photos by Lana Sweeten-Shults/GCU News
Just behind the students playing basketball at Grand Canyon University’s Lopes Performance Center, dozens of girls, their hair in pony tails and oversized bows and wearing pristine white GCU T-shirts, kicked, sprang up from the gym floor and chitter-chattered in excitement as they wrapped up the Lil Lopes Cheer and Dance Clinic.
Sally Adams stood midcourt, smiling and clapping and taking photos of one girl in particular, her daughter, Melanie.
“She loves doing cheer. It’s the highlight of her life,” said Adams of 15-year-old Melanie, who has Down syndrome.
Melanie cheers at her high school back home in the Palm Springs, California, area.
But today, besides showing off her skills at the clinic, taught by GCU Dance and Cheer, Melanie, her mom and the rest of their family were on campus for one other important thing – to visit Melanie’s brother, Brock, a computer engineering major, for Family Weekend on Friday and Saturday.
The campuswide event is strategically scheduled for about five weeks after teary-eyed parents drop off their children at the university, just enough time for those students to make friends, join clubs and settle into a routine.
Family Weekend reunites families for two days full of activities.
The campus bustled with everything from a marketplace teeming with student entrepreneurs selling their crafts, jewelry, vintage clothing and the like, to campus tours, rock-climbing at the Canyon Activity Center, a women’s volleyball game and, of course, the glorious Thunder Bolt, when one lucky parent gets 30 seconds to grab everything they can in the store (with some provisos, of course).
And those activities soldiered on despite an afternoon rain that forced the cancellation of a post-volleyball game carnival on Prescott Field.
Some 3,500 visitors preregistered for Family Weekend, presented by the university's Welcome Programs and the Parent Council – a group of parent supporters from around the country.
One parent fully invested in Family Weekend was Adams, who noted how Brock and his friends organized a flag football team.
“It’s been a wonderful five or six weeks; he’s doing so well,” she said.
The Lil Lopes Dance and Cheer Clinic is a staple at Family Weekend, though it has grown beyond being just an hourslong workshop.
“We actually started a Lil Lopes dance team,” said honors student Olivia Studdard, a senior entrepreneurial student and GCU Dance member. The new team performs at athletic events, such as volleyball and basketball games.
Studdard helped teach Saturday’s dance clinic, as did fellow dance team member Ella Arens, a junior communications manor.
“It think it’s super fun,” she said of mentoring students at the clinic. “ … It’s true that some of the kids who come here become part of, not even just on the dance team, but part of the Lopes community. Even seeing the kids from the (dance) studios that we know. There’s a lot of connections, and they keep coming back.
“So it’s just good to see the same people over again, and also just the new faces.”
Kriste Clark traveled from California to visit her daughter, a GCU student she and her family haven’t seen much of over the weekend.
“We’ve only seen her twice, but it’s good,” said Clark of her daughter, who keeps busy with GCU Cheer, popping over from the cheer and dance clinic to the volleyball game and Thunder Bolt.
For them, GCU has been a family affair.
Clark is an online student studying elementary education with an emphasis in special education, and her partner, Ariana Gatling, is a GCU alumna whose degrees are in forensic psychology and behavioral health science with an emphasis in childhood and adolescent disorders.
Tanea Moore also traveled to Family Weekend from California to visit daughter Nevaeh, a sophomore studying advertising and graphic design. The transfer student is not the first in her family to go to college but is the first to live on campus.
Seeing Nevaeh again after a monthlong separation has been amazing, Moore said.
“I missed her so much, but she’s doing so well. The growth I’ve seen in such a short amount of time is just beautiful,” she said. “It truly is a gift, a gift from God.”
Nevaeh said she and her family explored campus together this Family Weekend, with a stop, of course, at the campus Jimmy John’s.
These past few weeks at GCU have “been an interesting path,” said Navaeh, who chose to attend the university to stay close to family.
“God is with me and just holding me up right now. So it’s been amazing, and it’s a fun opportunity," Nevaeh said.
Rebecca Arcarese has been holding up parents, as well, as a member of the GCU Parent Council, a volunteer group that supports families navigating the transition to college and also acts as liaisons to university leadership.
Her daughter, Lizzy, is a sophomore music education major and a member of the Critical Mass vocal group.
Arcarese, who’s from Wyoming, gave away buttons to parents indicating what region of the country they’re from – and of course, she visited with them and told them about the Parent Council.
Arcarese said she joined the council because she loves GCU and wants to support everything the university does – “just a passion to help parents work through the transition of letting their student become independent,” she said.
“It’s just been enjoyable to really be a sounding board, a resource for the parents.”
With the evening carnival canceled because of the rain, the big end to the main day of Family Weekend came in the form of the Thunder Bolt, in which one lucky parent wins a shopping spree at the Lope Shop.
Daniel Accaria, a pastor at Hillside Community Church in Prescott, the winner, darted through the Lope Shop with purpose, dumping all manner of T-shirts, hoodies and other clothing items into the arms of his helper, mascot Thunder.
“It was probably our best Thunderbolt to date,” said Shelly Schrimpf, assistant director of campus retail & licensing, since the event debuted in 2017, when the Lope Shop was still located on Lopes Way. “He knew where he was going, and he had a plan.”
His strategy?
“Go for the clothes,” said Accaria, who recently had surgery on his knee.
He walked out with 30 items amounting to $1,400 worth of retail items.
Accaria said when his name was called as the winner, he was surprised, though his daughter, GCU student RuthRose, said they had talked about it all day, “He’s going to teach at church tomorrow, and I think he’s going to talk about this.”
“It went fast,” he said of his 30 seconds dashing through the store. “It was exciting.”
GCU Manager of Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected].
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