The Rapid Fire Dating Club hosted a St. Patrick’s Day themed event in the David O. McKay foyer on March 13. Green cloth adorned the tables and attendees were welcome to help themselves to green Sprite, Skittles, and Lucky Charms cereal as they played games and socialize.
President of the Rapid Fire Dating Club, Cienna Madson, a sophomore from Idaho majoring in marine biology, said her favorite part was laughing during all the activities. She said she enjoyed seeing everybody out of their comfort zone and getting to know others better.
Madson said, “Don’t be turned away by the name ‘dating.’ This is the perfect avenue for you to make any type of connection with anyone, get to know new people, get to know yourself and really push yourself to go out and do something that may be out of your comfort zone. You’ll find that it’s really enjoyable and you’ll find other people who are also doing the same thing. It’ll be a lot easier for you to make new friends.”
The event began with an icebreaker game, where Madson served everyone Skittles and divided them into pairs. Each different colored Skittle was assigned a topic; whatever Skittle a person drew from their cup determined what topic their partner had to talk about. The topic for blue skittles was favorite season or holiday, orange was childhood, and yellow was an embarrassing story. If someone drew a purple skittle, their partner shared a dream they’ve had, red was their favorite movie, and the topic for a green skittle was their first date or kiss.
Erica Greer, a senior from Washington D.C. majoring in exercise science, said she loved how silly and fun the event was. “It was easy talking to the people who were here and fun getting to know [them.] It didn’t seem awkward like dating can be. It was just like making new friends.”
Students also played a game where they could not let a green balloon touch the floor. They could not use their hands as they passed it around a circle so they used their heads, feet, knees, and other body parts to keep the balloon in the air.
Greer commented on the St. Patrick’s Day themed decor and refreshments. “I like [that] the Sprite is green. That’s new. They went all out. Cienna’s pretty great. I got to [give her] a whipped cream beard and it went into her nose and her ears.” She laughed. “It was partially accidentally and partially not. It was so fun.”
After playing the balloon game, everyone was divided into two teams and raced to see who could get the most Lucky Charms marshmallows out of a bowl and into a cup using nothing but a spoon they had to hold in their mouths.
Following that game there was a competition to see which student could create the best beard using a can of whipped cream. One student got creative and used her spoon to sculpt a beard, while the other two laughed as their beards kept sliding off the faces of their partners. Madson’s brother, Duke Madson, admitted he was a little worried he would suffocate on the whipped cream when he accidentally inhaled it.
Isabella McGaughey, a junior from Arizona studying marine biology, who helped form the club, said, “I enjoyed watching the whipped cream beard making happen. We’re trying to make this a really fun opportunity for people to come and gain new relationships and have a good time, so more people should come.”
Drexlerlee Leduna, an alumna from the Philippines, said coming to the event was a confidence booster for him. “It’s nice to get to know more people and put myself out there and introduce myself.”
Even though he is not a member of the club, Leduna thinks people should join because it’s fun. “Students should involve themselves in activities like this so they have the opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and really stretch themselves and [put themselves] out there.”
Writer: Emi Wainwright