Valley Nights sponsors free night of Kokomo's for students

April 16, 2007 —

by Adam Baudoux

Biology junior Susan Burgard and physical education senior Ashley Cox ride the mechanical bikes at Kokomo’s Saturday evening.

by Adam Baudoux

Graphic design senior Heather Schimtz revs the engines of her go-kart.

Students battled the cold weather to attend Valley Nights' Kokomo's Night on Saturday.

The organization rented the entire Kokomo's establishment to allow SVSU students a night of free activities.

Students raced around the go-kart track, smacked around golf balls, and challenged their hand-eye coordination in the batting cages.

"We wanted to do something different," Valley Nights member Eric Read said.

This is the first program sponsored by Valley Nights that took place off-campus.

"We wanted to involve commuting students and on-campus students," Read said.

The program received a great response with an estimated over 350 people in attendance throughout the night.

The large number of people at the event surprised student Alex Dornberg.

"There were more students than I thought would show up," Dornberg said.

"If Valley Nights were to have another Kokomo's Night, I would definitely go again. I believe this was one of their best events of the year."

The cold weather couldn't beat out the anxious students, and definitely couldn't get in the way of fun for SVSU sophomore Stacey Filbeck.

"It was a little cold, but it was worth it to freeze for a while," said Filbeck."I had a blast, and I would definitely do it again."

The games and activities impressed Dornberg as he participated in several of the events.

"The whole night was quite an atmosphere for college students," he said.

The go-karts were one of the top attractions. Student Megan Marx waited in the long line outside.

"The go-karts were definitely the most fun. It was really cold, but so much fun," she said.

For His House member Steve Schrauger, the event was an excuse to go out and do something with friends.

"I just loved hanging with my friends," he said.

It also gave him an opportunity to experience the fun of off campus activities in the area."I've never been to Kokomo's before, so being able to go for free to see what it was like was great," Schrauger said.

Student John MacKenzie agreed with Schrauger on the free admission.

"I thought it was pretty cool they opened it up for free for all the students," he said. "It was nice that all the students could gather some place off-campus to hang out. The activities were all full of students participating or waiting in line."

"I've seen people here tonight that I haven't seen at Valley Nights events before," Read said. "It's certainly possible that Valley Nights will put on a similar program next year."