This week’s list takes a look at the most attended Campus Activity Board events in 2011.
Every event has a CAB member sitting at the door with a silver clicker counter, counting bodies as they enter. When the numbers get over 150 it becomes hard to count for some events. So keeping that in mind, some numbers may be give or take 10-15 people.
The full time student at Lyndon pays $113 every year for student activities. Half of that goes to the Student Government general fund, and from there is allocated to clubs and other activities. The other half of the student activity fee goes to CAB. Any LSC student can attend CAB events for free.
CAB president Brian Stone think that “it’s a shame,” when students don’t want to attend certain CAB events. “We do offer a lot of different types of events, so that everyone can find something they enjoy.”
One thing people do make it out to is the “insomnia bowl.” Students had the option to use a free shuttle offered from campus to the Gold Crown Lanes bowling alley in St. Johnsbury. It drew just over 200 people in October, and in January attendance reached about 175.
However, bowling isn’t the top draw at Lyndon. This year, CAB had an even that blew recent attendance records out of the water. A smaller version of the Harlem Globe trotters, the Harlem Wizards, came to the Stannard Gymnasium to face off with The Hornets. The gym was packed, and just before halftime, CAB lost count at 520 people.
CAB did something a little different for the Wizards, in that they advertised heavily.
“It was alumni weekend, and we advertised to the community, on [local radio station] Magic giving away tickets, and there were posters up in town,” explained Stone.
After the Harlem Wizards, rounding out the top five are all novelty acts; A magician, comedian, ventriloquist, hypnotist. Part of the reason Stone thinks these events do so well is that they are rare. These are events that would be hard for a student to find on their own.
“How often to you get to see these things? We bring things you can’t find elsewhere.” Stone explained.
Musical acts do not draw a crowd like these novelty acts do. Stone believes the reason is that music is easily accessible, “If people want to hear music they will go elsewhere.”
Bus trips are also a hot CAB event. When CAB pays for busses and offers free rides to cities like Boston or New York City, over 100 people sign up. However, a bus can only hold 55 people, which in turn makes it not qualify for the top 10.
Project Dynamite is the next big thing scheduled by CAB. This event often draws 200-300 people wherever they go, and they come here on December 1. No events are scheduled yet for the spring semester, CAB will attend a conference in November to fill the calendar. The current calendar is available on the school Google events calendar, kiosks around school, on Facebook, and through the email sent out by CAB advisor Kayla Carlozzi.