You walk up and scan your Scots Card to hear the beep of the door opening. It’s familiar; you’ve been here before, but it looks different. You walk in and are overcome with a wave of hot, sticky air. The room is crowded and loud. Demogorgons cover the walls. You see people waiting to pass through a doorway into the heart of the building. You’re just a corporate drone, so you fall in line and wait to enter.
Student Body President Erik Peeples ’20 mans the door and allows small groups of people to gain access to what lies ahead, never to be seen again. The line moves, and you inch closer and closer to the door. Your heart is racing. What is this? you ask yourself through your nervous thoughts. I jump in. “This,” I say, “is Around Founders.”
That’s right folks, on Saturday October 26th the annual event of Around Founders took place, and it was quite a ride. Each hall in Founders spent hours decorating to create impressive 80s themed spaces, in the end becoming unrecognizable as college dorm room halls. In past years, there has even been gravel, hay, and water covering the floors of some of halls.
Jubilee RA Beebe Stroud ’22 gave us a little bit of insight into her hall and the effort exerted. Jubilee turned their hall into your friendly neighborhood Blockbuster, showcasing 80s movies like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Ghostbusters,” and “The Shining.” Stroud said that her hall had been discussing Around Founders about a month in advance, and many of the Jubilee residents gathered supplies from their homes over fall break in order to prepare.
“I think the best part of the experience was seeing people's faces as they walked through,” said Stroud, “It was especially nice to see all of our hard work pay off when people got excited or spooked in our hall.” Stroud also said that her hall began decorating early Thursday night and continued to decorate all of Friday and Saturday until the work was complete. Talk about commitment.
Jubilee won second place for their Blockbuster theme. Ekklesia won first place for their theme of the movie “Aliens,” and Highlands won third place for their creative theme of “complete independence of commonwealth countries from the UK” (shoutout to Mary Grace Donaldson ’20 for explaining their amazing and hilarious theme). Gracewell won People’s Choice and Most Aesthetic for their “Princess Bride” themed hall, and Catacombs won Most Authentically 80s for their MTV decorated hall.
Jackson Lyda ’22 of the Combs explained that, in contrast to Jubilee, Catacombs took about a day to prepare for Around Founders and about 10 hours to decorate. Lyda said that his favorite part of the experience was, “listening to ‘Remain in Light’ for twenty-four hours to get into character.” You can’t say that isn’t commitment.
Other halls that also did a spectacular job and leaned into the 80s theme were Balcony with their Pac-Man theme and Blackwatch with their theme of the Berlin Wall. Will Siegenthaler ’20, a former Catacombian, was really struck by Brethren's Time Machine Stuck in the 80s theme. “The caveman room was hysterical,” said Siegenthaler, “and the 2180 nuclear fallout room followed by the alien experimentation room was an incredible one-two punch.”
This was Siegenthaler’s first year to be an observer in the event instead of participating, which definitely has its perks. He was not totally thrilled with the experience of hours of decorating and cleaning up the hall, and said that “being an observer is nice because you have no stakes in the outcome, and you can just walk through and see everything.” Siegenthaler would also like to take this time to apologize to Gracewell for taking their large container of cheeseballs.
Around Founders is a cherished and well-loved event by many, but especially by those in Founders. “People work really hard on their halls and it brings a lot of hall unity and building pride,” said Stroud, “Founders is a very creative and quirky place, and Around Founders is a really fun way for the building to show off its strong suit to the campus.”
Although Siegenthaler now enjoys being off campus and simply coming to observe and support the event, he did mention that he always had a good time participating with his hall. He does, however, have an important word of critique, for anyone taking notes. Although the popcorn in the lobby added a touch of class and elegance, Siegenthaler says that “there was so much body heat and sweat in the room that the popcorn was damp.” Don’t worry, Founders, we really appreciated the effort either way, and still ate the damp popcorn out of politeness. It really fit the quirky vibe, but perhaps less damp popcorn would be the way to go next year.