Originally published November 19, 2010
The Association of Residence Halls had students filing into the Garrett Center with packed suitcases Friday night for the seventh annual Suitcase Social.
Four students won weekend trips to St. Louis and New York City free of charge. Every year ARH chooses a student pair for a trip to a mystery destination. This is the first year ARH has given away two trips.
“Destinations are chosen based on the budget, travel time and how attractive the city would be to college students,” ARH President Randy DuMez said. “The budget is made up of from $10 of the $40 fee every resident pays before moving in.”
During the event, food was available to students while waiting for winners to be announced.
“At the event we do fun games with prizes such as ‘guess the location’ and ‘guess the current temperature’ and offered free pizza and pink lemonade,” DuMez said.
ARH raffles the trips away towards the end of the semester because of the high stress levels that come with nearing finals.
“Suitcase Social gives a few students the opportunity to relax and get away for a short while,” DuMez said.
Sophomores entrepreneurship major Christian Harris and pre-engineering major Fruenze Deadmon won the trip to New York City.
“[We] had a blast, I didn’t want to come back,” Harris said. “We did not sleep the whole weekend, and overall it was an amazing trip.”
Harris said he really enjoyed the trip to New York.
“We stayed two blocks from Times Square,” he said. “We explored Times Square, Central Park and visited Long Island and Harlem.”
Freshmen health sciences major Jacqueline Meyer and psychology and English major Andrew Gillens won the trip to St. Louis.
Meyer said they went to places like the City Museum and the Gateway Arch.
“We went to the City Museum and ate amazing food,” she said. “We also went to the Arch and explored the city.”
Gillen said he enjoyed the trip.
“[We] visited the Morgan Street Brewery and it was my birthday weekend,” he said. “So what could have been better than a free trip to St. Louis?”
