ESU students visit a booth with information about predatory drugs and how to avoid them during “Safe Spring Break,” Monday night in the Memorial Union Ballroom. Alissa Miller/ The Bulletin

When students entered the Memorial Union ballroom on Monday, they were greeted with pictures of sexually transmitted infections, a giant penis cutout, empathy pregnancy bellies and condoms at the Safe Spring Break carnival.
“It’s an event that we’ve done for six years that is geared towards reminding college students how to have a fun and safe spring break,” said Mary McDaniel, assistant director of student health services.
The event was sponsored by the ESU Newman Division of Nursing, Student Life, the Memorial Union, UAC, GAMMA, the Department of Student Wellness and Residential Life.
“It’s geared around five main prevention areas: sexual assault prevention, alcohol misuse prevention, STI prevention, pregnancy prevention and there’s kind of a fifth catch all category for things like staying hydrated, skin care, that kind of thing,” McDaniel said.
The attendees were invited to play games with names like “involuntary island,” “tighten ur nuts island,” “sand pong” and “limbo 4 yo life.” Prizes and informational pamphlets were given out at each of the stations. Names were also entered into drawings for gift baskets containing items from each of the prevention areas. Upon arrival, students received tickets for a raffle of an X-box Kinect, which was provided by Residential Life.
This was not all about having fun though. The sponsors wanted the attendees to learn something from the experience.
“It started out after just noticing…that every year after spring break…we’d start seeing more people come into the health center with really bad blister sun burns and then in a couple of weeks they were coming in for pregnancy tests and then a couple of weeks after that, we had an increased number of people coming in for STI tests,” McDaniel said. “We became aware that there was a need for some prevention reminders.”
Attendees seemed to have fun at the event.
“I think it was a great presentation of things a student should look out for during spring break,” said Garion Masterson, sophomore digital and audio production major.

Bre Cooper, freshman elementary education major said that she had a blast and learned a lot of new information.
McDaniel said that she did not expect to teach many new things to the students, but instead, remind them of potential dangers.
“It more serves as a reminder or as maybe a wake up. It’s just a fun way to remind college students that we want you to have fun and we want you to be healthy and safe,” McDaniel said.

Smantha Jones

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Brad Raines, senior secondary social studies education major, tries to toss a pingpong ball into the cups at the end of the table during the Safe Spring Break carnival Monday night in Webb Lecture Hall in the Memorial Union. The carnival was held to make students aware of the many possible dangers that could happen during spring break.

Giant penis cutouts with oozing sores, condom encased cucumbers, beer goggles, diapers and tattoos were all featured in games played by students at the Safe Spring Break carnival on Monday.

The event, hosted by the Health Center, SOS, GAMMA, ADAP, Division of Student Life and UAC focused on providing awareness to students about potential dangers that arise during spring break.

“We try to raise awareness so that students can decrease their risk because we all hear the stories on the news about the bad things that can happen,” said Mary McDaniel, assistant director of Student Health Services. “We want our students to have a wonderful spring break and to come back safe and rested and ready to finish up the semester.”

This was the fifth annual “Safe Spring Break,” a tradition which started after Student Health Services saw some trends following spring break.

“Years ago, we started noticing that right after spring break we had an increase in the request for pregnancy tests so we know that’s a concern,” McDaniel said. “Also, we have seen over the years a rise in the number of requests for sexually transmitted infection testing following spring break, and sometimes a rise in the number of positives.”

The event had carnival games focused on five main areas: unintended pregnancy, alcohol and drug use, STIs, sexual assault and general safe traveling. Some games included “Pop that Sore,” “Bankrupt Baby,” “Think Before You Drink” and “Crash Your Cranium.”

“It’s a little bit different every year because the nursing students who are in their community health class actually design, develop and implement all of the games,” McDaniel said. “So it’s education in the guise of carnival style games. While it’s the same topic material, it’s entirely new creation from the students that are new to that class.”

Nathaniel Enabnit, senior nursing major, helped man “Walk the Line,” a game where goggles impair students’ ability. The students have to walk a straight line after riding a tricycle.

“We’re hoping that they learn something from all of the four stations that we have (in the drinking safe category),” Enabnit said. “But the ‘walk the line’ I think is more fun and I hope that it makes them realize that they shouldn’t be driving because they’re not doing very well.”

Spencer King, freshman pre-pharmacy major, said he enjoyed the information that was presented through the games.

“The wheel of misfortune was definitely my favorite,” King said. “You could get asked a question about pretty much anything, which made it really interesting.”

Another station, where students could practice their punching, focused on self-defense. Damon Leiss, physical recreation instructor, took the hits.

“The idea behind it is that when women punch, they should try to punch as fast and as many times as possible to deter somebody if they are grabbed,” Leiss said. “I think people are having a good time with this, but I hope they are also learning a little something.”

Kelsie Jones, freshman biology major, said she found the overall event to be very informative.

“I think it’s a good way to help prevent some of these things from happening over spring break by being informed,” Jones said. “And making it interactive makes it a lot more fun.”

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