Originally published October 22, 2010
The first ever Homecoming Bonfire proved to be a success this past weekend, but many students believe the event still needs some tweaking.
“The bonfire is a good idea to bring people together, but I think there still needs to be more new events to Homecoming weekend,” said junior sports communication major Zach Keesee.
The event included an opening pep rally and free sandwiches, but freshman undecided engineering major Eric Currier said he thinks there should be more activities along side the bonfire next year.
“It was a nice event and the fire really sparked up, but if there would have been activities around the bonfire like the games and crafts they do at Late Night BU to get students interacted, more people would have would have stuck around,” Currier said.
The Bravettes and the cheerleaders performed at the pep rally with the intention of getting students excited for the Homecoming soccer game the next day, but several students said they felt it wasn’t enough.
“The pep rally didn’t really engage students. There was no school spirit and no one got into it,” said Currier. “I would recommend a short speaker as an intro to get everyone into the mood and maybe some live music, too.”
Freshman industrial engineering major Katherine Reddy said he agreed with Currier.
“The bonfire was fun,” she said. “But the pep rally wasn’t enough to get you excited about soccer.”
Sophomore nursing major Melissa Nussbaum said the fire, which had a radius of 10 feet and flames that rose to around 20 feet, was impressive, but she was surprised about how quickly it ended.
“The fire was very big and was really cool,” she said. “But it died down really fast.”
Director of Student Activities Michelle Whited said the fire died down quickly because they did not have a supply of firewood to keep the fire going.
“Personally, I didn’t know that the fire would die down so quickly,” Whited said. “I don’t know a lot about wood and bonfires, so when it started to die we were afraid people would leave. Had we known that the fire would only last that long we would have been more prepared.”
Whited said she expected more students to come out to socialize and enjoy the bonfire.
“I think it went really well,” she said. “I was kind of surprised at the low turn-out. I mean, it was the first time that there is a fire on campus, I thought that would be enough to get people to want to at least check it out.”
