Game show host and Grand Canyon University student David Griffin channeled his best Steve Harvey and, microphone in hand, asked: “Name a place where students want to hang out on campus.”
An answer came flying, swiftly: “Chick-fil-A!!!”
“The Lord’s chicken!” Griffin replied, turning to the screen, a duplicate of the game board for popular television show “Family Feud." A clear, ringing ding followed, signaling that the answer made the list of popular answers on the screen behind them.
June Hilliard of the Morales family, in a huddle with her team, threw out what she thought was another popular student hangout place, though she was unsure of her answer: “The Lounge? … We’re in it?”
Another ding of approval sounded from the Commuter Lounge in the Kaibab Building, where GCU Commuter Life hosted its own version of the game show.
It was one of more than 30 events peppered throughout the bustling Family Weekend at GCU.
Hilliard actually isn’t part of the Morales family but, along with Molly McCord, became an honorary Morales for 10 minutes and joined them to play “Family Feud.”
“We’re the supreme aunties,” Hilliard said of herself and McCord. They were subbing in for their niece’s parents, who were napping. “We’re committing to doing all the activities.”
The supreme aunties traveled with the rest of their family from Las Vegas to attend GCU Family Weekend to support niece Trinity Bradbury, a freshman.
Jada Wendling, who is studying for her master’s degree in English, popped into the Commuter Lounge with two other GCU graduate students to soak up the very friendly “Family Feud”-like atmosphere, complete with synchronized clapping to the game show’s jaunty theme song.
“This is 10 out of 10,” she said of the level of fun at the lounge, where commuter students who don’t live on campus and travel from 10, 20 or more miles away to attend classes have a place of their own. “Commuter Life is amazing!"
Wendling said, absolutely, she does watch "Family Feud." She loves it.
But Mickele Kunselman, Commuter Life coordinator, discovered that many students have never heard of the game show.
“It’s a good ol’ fashioned staple, isn’t it? But it was really funny. When I took this to the (Commuter Life) team and said, ‘Hey guys, we’re going to be doing ‘Family Feud.’ They’re like, ‘What’s that?'” Kunselman said with a smile at the event, which offered up pizza, beverages and plenty of prizes.
Commuter Life’s “Family Feud” joined a slew of other events strewn across campus Friday and Saturday, from staples like the ThunderRUN 5K and Lil Lopes Dance and Cheer Clinic to a prayer walk, a student market and invitations to watch play rehearsals for “Little Shop of Horrors" or baseball practice.
“We made a much more concerted effort (to have a lot of events) and have folks know about them,” said Charity Norman, director of Welcome Programs. Not only did families get access to a digital schedule but also this year, a printed schedule to make sure they didn’t miss anything.
This is only the second year Welcome Programs has joined the Parent Council to helm Family Weekend, traditionally scheduled about six weeks into the semester, when students have settled into a routine on campus.
Norman said by 5 p.m. Friday, almost 1,400 families had checked in, with about 600 still slated to do so. That number didn't count the walk-ins.
You could find many of those families on Friday at a pickleball mixer at the courts near the Canyon Activity Center.
It’s where Fabio Lando, from Sacramento, California, picked up a pickleball paddle for the first time.
The courts were busy as moms, dads, brothers and sisters popped a few pickleballs into the air.
Lando was on campus to visit daughter Olivia Lando, a nursing major.
“Initially, I thought it was just supposed to be my dad flying in,” she said. “ … Then I walked out of my floor and the security door and I see everyone, including the dogs. It was a nice surprise.”
“We missed her. We wanted to see her,” Fabio said.
Family Weekend couldn’t have come quick enough for freshman Ashley Rosal, a nursing major.
“Do you know where Thunder went?” she asked while tooling around the Lope Shop with niece Jaylee Razo and brother Noe Negrete, who had just arrived.
They were on a mission to get a photo with the GCU mascot.
“It’s been really good,” she said of Family Weekend so far. “I’m just homesick.”
Rosal started crying as Razo and Negrete hugged her.
“We miss the little sister,” Negrete said.
The big event for the Lope Shop on Family Weekend – the biggest weekend of the year for the campus retailer – is the Thunderbolt shopping spree. It's when one lucky family member gets 30 seconds to grab as much merchandise as they can. Well, as much as Thunder can carry.
And it was a haul for Emma Hogan of Tucson, Arizona.
“Warm up, Emma! Warm up!” said a Parent Council member while the Lope Shop team, dressed in coordinating purple tutus, cheered Hogan on as she sprinted through the store in a mad dash, grabbing sweatshirts, scooping up a whole shelf of drinkware and taking down a bit of hardware during the melee.
Hogan said she didn’t have a strategy going into it. In fact, she made it to the Lope Shop just in time, before Garrett Abeyta, Welcome Programs manager, was going to move on to the next name. Thunderbolt winners have to be present to win.
Hogan was at the Student Union having coffee when her family decided it was time to head to the Lope Shop to see whose name was drawn.
In the end, the upbeat Hogan did well, racking up $1,594.20 worth of merchandise. It was a good haul, though the best part of the weekend was “visiting my niece, my favorite niece,” Hogan said.
Her niece, business administration student Martha Calderon, said, “We were SO excited. I couldn’t believe it. When they said the name the first time, we thought, ‘Nah.’ Then when they said it the second time and it was her, I was like, ‘Oh my God!’”
Although Aunt Emma didn’t grab the sweater Calderon wanted – there wasn’t enough time to find it – the GCU freshman said the big thing for her was, “They bring me a lot of support,” she said of her family.
Kunselman, who on Friday was welcoming a family to the Commuter Lounge, said the best part of Family Weekend for her was: “I think for us, it’s watching them smile and just having a good time.”
Manager of Internal Communications Lana Sweeten-Shults can be reached at [email protected].
***
Related content:
GCU News: Charcuterie class, more make the cut at Family Weekend
GCU News: Welcome Week is jammed with jamming and, well, just joy
