Vandals Dining hosted Rock on the Block on Thursday, Oct. 1 on the Theophilus Tower Lawn.
The event included music from KOUI-FM DJ Ryan Hill, booths from various partners, a photo booth and more. https://www.instagram.com/p/CE4XHZFnGnT/
Bryanna Muscella, field marketing specialist for Vandals Dining, was the main event organizer and Megan Beckman, the executive chef, put together meals.
Muscella and her team decided to host the event a couple of months ago. She said students deserved it because they have been through a lot and felt the event would be a nice welcome back.
“We wanted to hold it in October because it’s a beautiful time and to let students get acclimated to COVID-19 guidelines,” Muscella said. “They just finished up midterms, so it’s a great way to unwind and get ready for the upcoming holidays.”
Some on-campus partners featured at the event were Soil Stewards, UI Housing and Residence Life, Vandal Food Pantry, Vandal Vote and Vandal Green Dot. Local community partners, Panhandle Cone and Coffee, Linc Foods from Spokane, WA, Smoot’s Flavor Farm and Whitestone Mountain Orchard joined the event. The drink brands Coca-Cola, Monster and Body Armor were also featured at the event.
The event was limited to 357 people at a time. If there were a maximum amount of people, the others would have to wait at the entrance.
Rock the Block was open to everyone, not just limited to students. The Hub closed for the evening meal and students with Vandal ID cards could use their meal swipes to get into the event.
Will Standage, the catering executive chef, and Teresa Beck, the catering manager at Gonzaga University, came from Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA to attend Rock the Block’s beginning of the year welcome back event since their university did not have one.
They wanted to engage with other vendors, people from the community and encourage students to come to the event.
Nadia Castell, acting interim general manager at Providence, wanted the students to bring up their spirits and keep the good times going.
Charlie Richardson, a junior, saw the event on social media and decided to come. Ashley Irons, a freshman, heard the music and decided to come check out the event. Blake Mason, freshman majoring in virtual technology and design, came because he thought it might be fun.
Irons said she will come to any event as long as there’s music involved. Richardson and Irons’ favorite booth was the Smoot’s Flavor Farm with the herbs.
All three students enjoyed the pulled pork the most from the food they tried, aside from the ice cream provided by Panhandle Cone and Coffee.
William Jostlein came to the event to see what was set up. He said the music wasn’t his type but thought there was a good effort put into everything there. The pulled pork was his favorite food item at the event and said it was above average.
D’Rikka Cruz, a sophomore majoring in Career & Tech Ed-Bus/Mk Ed Opt., said the event was pretty neat and it was nice to be able to socialize with people.
She enjoyed the music, and her favorite booth was the Panhandle Cone and Coffee. For future events like this, she thought game options would be good to have. Her favorite food item at the event was the potato salad. She also registered to vote at the Vandal Vote booth.
“If you can vote, you should vote,” Cruz said.
Kim Stager can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @journalismgoals.