El Camino College’s Homecoming “CarniFall” was a tailgate event preceding the Warriors homecoming football game that featured free food, carnival games, giveaways and prizes on Nov. 5 in front of Murdock Stadium.
The event marked the first homecoming festival to take place since pandemic restrictions were lifted.
Hosted by the Inter-Club Council, Homecoming “CarniFall” had mini-games for attendees to take part in such as limbo, Mega Jenga, spike ball, Connect Four, and mega checkers.
Not only were there games to play, but free food was also offered to attendees.
The Associated Students Organization Director of Finance Sabrina Rashiq, who had many different clubs attend the festivities, saw this as an opportunity to celebrate the old homecoming tradition back on campus.
“We realized that homecoming parties haven’t been a thing for a couple of years because of COVID, and we wanted to kick start it again, and we thought what better way to celebrate homecoming than like to have a little carnival,” Rashiq said.
Rashiq, who had been at El Camino with the rest of her peers setting up their booth, invited clubs that were also looking to attract new members with the goal of increasing student engagement.
“A couple of clubs who joined with us, like the Child Development Club, 3D printing, [Alpha Gamma Sigma Alpha Phi Chapter], so they had a lot of club members come and go, but it’s for everyone. We’ve been inviting everyone,” Rashiq said.
Inter-Club Council President Alondra Alvarado praised the efforts put forth by Rashiq and Jana Abulanban, who were unable to attend, but also helped organize the event.
“I’m just really proud of Sabrina and Jana. I know that there has been a traditional homecoming dance in the past. But still, a lot of our cabinet is not used to that dance yet because we are just transitioning from virtual to in-person,” Alvarado said.
President of the Honors Transfer Club, Caitlyn Hooper, who attended the event, had nothing but praise for the carnival but also enjoyed such opportunities to meet new people in person and possibly have interested individuals join the club.
“The event was fun. We had a lot of people show up, we played some games, we had some prizes, and we met some new amazing people; there’s free food,” Hooper said, “If people want to join, they are welcome to join.”
While the clubs were playing games and interacting with people, kinesiology instructor Tom Hazell volunteered to cook hamburgers and hotdogs for attendees while recruiting players for the badminton team this spring semester.
It’s always nice; it doesn’t take a lot of effort to be out here, and I like doing it. Coach Britton is the head coach of the badminton team, and they are looking for women athletes to play in the spring,” Hazell said.
As for future events, both the Associated Students Organization and Inter-Club Council have planned events, such as gaming tournaments and warrior games.
“Hopefully, for the future cabinet next year, they can focus on maybe actually doing a dance and going bigger and better than this, but like last year, we didn’t do a carnival, so I think even like doing this is a huge step in like getting these events back in person,” Alvarado said.
