Photo courtesy of Millersville News. Skully pictured at the 2024 Homecoming parade.
Abigail Manbeck
News Editor
As a pre-homecoming celebration at Millersville University, Center for Health Education and Promotion put together a celebration for Homecoming weekend. This event also featured Skully’s 20th birthday bash. This celebration took place on Thursday, Sept. 19 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the SMC promenade.
As part of the event, organizations and clubs from both the university and the Lancaster area came out to teach about safety, especially during Homecoming weekend. Some of them talked about drugs and alcohol while others talked about driving safety, especially if you are impaired, as well as relationship violence whether it be dating issues or the extreme of sexual violence.
Besides getting information regarding these topics, attendees could play games like trivia or pick-a-duck to win prizes. Some of these games involved having some knowledge about the subject area, so you could make sure you were up-to-date on the latest information and even learned more that you may have not known previously.
Many of the tables had snacks, candy, and little trinkets like pens or water bottles that you could help yourself to. These were just little incentives to get you to come and listen to each person’s speech about their topic.
While going around to many tables, each person at their table would stamp a little card that you got at check-in. This card was to get filled up with these stamps in order to collect the event prize at the end. The prize that you got was a pair of Millersville sunglasses and a Millersville visor hat. These were also another little incentive to get you to go through and inform yourself about the topics of discussion.
With the topic of alcohol that was prominent at this pre-party, there were mocktails being made so people could enjoy a drink that doesn’t have many consequences attached to it.
At the other part of the event, Skully, the university’s mascot was celebrated. You could join in celebrating their day by wearing a party hat, playing a party horn, and eating cupcakes. You could also take a picture with Skully.
If you did not join in for the event this year, make sure to look out for it next year!