Spring Creek Campus will hold its second-ever SpringFest from 11:30 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday, April 30, featuring performances, activity tables, food trucks and a talent show. Organizers are especially excited about the talent show, dubbed “Collin’s Got Talent.”
SpringFest is an end-of-year celebration that allows the students time to relax, reflect and enjoy some of the other aspects of the college, according to Deidra Carpenter and Todd Fields, co-chairs of the biennial event.
“SpringFest is happening about the time students are getting ready for finals and they feel like ‘I am almost through the semester,’” Fields said. “It was done two years ago and everybody seemed to like it. The spirit of it, once you see it, is huge.”
The event will likely fill up the Spring Creek Campus Commons between the library and the main building. There will be performances by live bands and student organizations, as well as activity tables including painting, ceramics and sculpture. Organizers put the call out to any student group that wants to participate. The one condition: make the table interactive, not just a place to hand out flyers.
Carpenter said the fun activities are a way to expose students to resources they may not know about and to encourage networking between students.
Fields added that one great thing about the event is students will get the feel of a traditional college setting, even more than they do now.
“We are a commuter college, so we don’t have dorms,” he said. “It’s nice for students to feel like they are part of something. We just want to get students more involved on the campus, rather than just come to class and leave.”
Organizers are banking on students sticking around for the food as well. Food trucks, including Easy Sliders, Parrot Ice, Cajun Tailgaters and Bombay Chopstix, will sell their culinary concoctions throughout the event. Vegan and gluten-free options will also be available.
Carpenter said she is especially glad to have the slider truck on campus because she enjoys their food. Having them on campus means more than unique food, though. She said the trucks’ eagerness to come to the event signaled a degree of community involvement that was heartening.
“The great thing about it was that when the request went out (to recruit trucks for the event), the response was huge within 24 hours,” she said. “We actually had to turn people away. It wasn’t really geared toward money. It was more about support for the college.”
Attendees will have a show to go with their lunch, as entertainment will play a big part in SpringFest. One band scheduled to perform is “The Roof Raisers,” comprised of Collin College faculty members. Other performances will be scheduled throughout the event, but the big entertainment draw will probably be Collin’s Got Talent, a talent show planned from 1-2 p.m. in the John Anthony Theatre.
“Since this is our second year, we wanted to add something different,” Fields said. “This is also something the students can be directly involved with. Let’s showcase what you can do and also be awarded scholarship money. That’s icing on the cake.”
The performers are being selected from entries submitted in March. Six finalists will perform, along with three honorable mentions. The finalists are competing for two scholarships of $1,250 and $1,000.
Carpenter said the performances are wide ranging and go beyond the regular singing and dancing acts most people think of for talent shows.
“I am definitely looking forward to the talent show,” Carpenter said. “The students who have submitted are very excited. We are getting e-mails to make sure their submissions have been accepted, asking if they will be selected and even asking us to critique their videos. The excitement we are getting from the students and staff has ignited my own excitement.”