Students of Chico State accepted the challenge to have a safe start to Labor Day weekend on Saturday with fun games, lunch and music on the Shasta and Lassen lawns.

The Wildcat Challenge was hosted by the Associated Students on August 31, providing several different activities for teams of students to come out and compete for a prize.

The activities included volleyball on the sand court, dodgeball, a dizzy bat course, target toss, corn hole, ladder ball, potato sack race and a water balloon pass that was combined with a wet sponge activity.

“We’ve been planning this throughout the summer and formed it after Chico Challenge and decided to call it Wildcat Challenge,” said Executive Vice President Michael Barrett. “We hope to be doing this again in future years.”

There were 12 teams differentiated by color with four to 10 people per team. The teams included the A.S. sustainability program, Cross-Cultural Leadership Center, Community Action

Volunteers in Education, members from the investors club and free agents who were students that joined on the spot to play.

Each team had 10 minutes to try and get the most points at each activity while competing against the other team.

“This is a really wicked, awesome event and I’m really proud to be a wildcat especially this weekend,” said Nicole McAllister, a senior political science and women’s studies double major and director of university affairs.

Students were cheered on by their peers while they quickly spun around in circles with their nose to a bat and then tried to outrun their competitors. They had to run in-between and jump over cones and run back to the start.

“It’s a really easy way to meet most of the upperclassmen,” said Michael Kennedy, a freshman psychology major. “The dizzy bat course was really fun and my favorite part was the team aspect because everyone is cheering for each other and having fun.”

Once all the activities were finished, the event ended with lunch, the announcement of the winning team and a raffle drawing. The winning team of the Wildcat Challenge was a group of students from Sutter Hall along with their resident adviser, Taylor Moffitt.

The team won Wildcat Swag; which included a water bottle, keychain, lanyard, magnet and Chico State tube socks.

“Wildcat Challenge” was an event that supported team work, meeting new people, getting active, being outdoors, and having fun in a safe way.

“As a student, labor day will always be a tradition to students because they are back at school and survived the first week.” said Taylor Herren, senior animal science major and AS

president. “We want to give people events located around the campus where they can socialize and have fun.”

Melanie Doherty can be reached at [email protected].