Despite the rain clouds and stormy weather, the Inter-Residence Council and the Interfraternity Council’s event Chillin’ and Grillin’ went forward as planned Wednesday evening.
Kyle Winters, senior in business management and a representative for the IRC, said the yearly event at Tucker Beach is a great way to get out after the first day of class and meet people, chill and grill.
“We’ve got three enormous lines of burgers, hot dogs and wings, drinks — standard cookout fare. Wing Zone is having a couple of wing-eating competitions. They’re 10 of the nuclear wings. It’s as fast as you can eat them. I’ve done it, and you’ll tear up,” Winters said.
Other than free food, students participated in volleyball, Frisbee, throwing footballs and cornhole.
Organizers gave out tickets for Saturday’s Silent Disco, also hosted by the IRC, early in the event. Silent Disco is a new Wolfpack Welcome Week event where each participant get to dance to their own style of music.
“We can only give out so many tickets. We’re giving them out in batches — we have been at all of our Wolfpack Welcome Week events. We only have so many we’re giving out at each and we’ve given out all that we can for Chillin’ and Grillin’,” Winters said. “What we have left is going to be given out at Friday Fest and at the door. We’re only going to give away about 100 at the door.”
Kris Gower, junior in business administration and international studies, said the IRC was very excited to host both the Chillin’ and Grillin’ event and the Silent Disco.
“It’s kind of the first time we have really pooled our energy and done that. We also viewed them as really good cross-promotions for one another. Sometimes we have a hard time getting a lot of people out for Chillin’ and Grillin’, but when you pair it with Silent Disco as one of the only ways to get tickets for it, it really helped publicity,” Gower said. “People are way more excited about coming to an event that’s put on by the same organization that’s doing something like that.” Gower said Chillin’ and Grillin’ has been a long-standing cooperation between the IRC and the IFC.
“[IFC has] more grills than anyone else on campus. They always bring their grills out for the event and the guys are always so helpful. It’s kind of an unlikely partnership, but it works very well,” Gower said.
Garrett Pengelly, a junior in chemical engineering and member of the Greek community, promoted his fraternity while grilling burgers.
“This is a way for the Greeks to get their names out there, because a lot of people feel that Greeks have a fairly bad reputation. They come to college with the ‘Animal House’ stereotype image of Greeks. It’s a way for us to show the general student body what we’re like,” Pengelly said.
Tori Milioni, a freshman in biological sciences, said she was originally skeptical about coming to the event but found it to be “pretty cool.”
“It’s the first day, so you see people who are in your classes and you can hang out with them. The fact that everyone can come out and get free food and listen to the music — it’s not like [the IRC and IFC] went cheap or anything,” Milioni said.
