Saint Mary's Student Activities Board (SAB) established a new goal this year — increasing student activity.
Instead of hosting one big event per semester, they agreed to increase it to one event per month.
The Board started off the year with Belles Bash rather than the annual Jamaica Shaka. The event featured fireworks, inflatable games and food.
"We had a good turn out," Allison Courtney, president of SAB, said. "Around 800 people showed up to the event."
In addition, SAB hosted an outdoor movie night with the screening of Toy Story 3.
As part of their goal, SAB had to create new events to fill each month of the academic year.
The Board celebrated October with October Fest. The event featured a band, food and beverages and a beer garden for those students over the age of 21.
Also in October, the Board hosted its annual pumpkin carving contest, and turned the quad into one big pumpkin patch.
In November, SAB created Bellakazam, a Harry Potter inspired celebration for the whole campus. The event consisted of a Great Hall Dinner, a Quidditch match and a magician, Courtney said.
The event coincided with the creation of a Saint Mary's Quidditch team, a new club on campus.
December featured a Winter Wonderland, where SAB invited elementary students from one school in the community to attend a day of holiday celebration. The kids made crafts, decorated Christmas cookies, had pictures with Santa and watched the movie "The Grinch."
In addition, the board still hosted Sundaes on Sunday every other Sunday of the month. Sundaes on Sunday is an event held in Vander Vennet Theater in the basement of the Student Center.
SAB provides students with free ice cream sundaes and there is a showing of a popular television show that airs on Sunday night or a movie. In the past, they have watched anything from the movie "Killers" to "Hocus Pocus."
"This year we really encouraged member involvement," Courtney said. "We wanted the events to be the idea of the members, not just the [board executives.]"
The Board collaborated with other campus clubs to make the events a community-wide project.
The Board has big plans for next semester, including SMC Tostal — the annual event that brings activities and a musician to campus — an ice skating rink in the quad in February and a campus-wide Easter egg hunt.
