The first ever Spirit Week occurred this year at Mercyhurst with events like Class Color Day, the Class Wars/Spirit Barbeque and the Running of the Lakers to bring school spirit to campus.

The Spirit BBQ alone saw about 200 students, who enjoyed the event’s corn hole, tug-of-war and music.

Four bookstore gift cards were raffled off and the official spirit shirt, also known as “The Shirt” was handed out free to all participants.

Salina Bowe photo: During Spirit Week students participated in a tug-of-war.

The Shirt was also sold as a lead-up to HurstFest and the homecoming game as an inexpensive way to show and generate more school spirit. It was so popular, another order had to be placed.

Mercyhurst Student Government (MSG) Vice President Brian Lombardo said, “We’re really excited about our Spirit initiatives thus far this year. We see people getting really excited about MU again and this weekend was a ton of fun with HurstFest in the Union and a huge Laker win. So we definitely hope we can keep the ball rolling, and are positive we’re up to do the challenge.”

These events were successful thanks to the work by MSG and were a heavily backed project by the class senators. The newly formed Spirit Committee worked hand-in-hand with MSG’s Events and public relations committees to plan and organize the Spirit week events leading up to the homecoming game.

As for HurstFest and the homecoming events, it was coordinated months in advance by MSG Events Coordinator Jenna Dascanio and Student Activities Council (SAC) chair Adam Borgman.

They were responsible for the events festivities like the inflatables, the petting zoo, stadium cups and the serving of many fall foods like the caramel apples and hot apple cider.
The spirit continued in front of the stadium where beads, pins, face paint, inflatable spirit items and noise makers were passed out to allow students to cheer on their fellow Lakers at the game and show their pride.

“I thought it was great that a lot of parents, students and alumni came out to the game to support the Lakers,” senior Lindsay Ogden said.

Students also were given the chance to try out the new Culinary Cab by receiving a ticket to get one free item in front of the stadium.

Despite the poor weather, there was a strong turn-out from students, alumni, parents and siblings.

“Overall, I was extremely happy with the turn-out for our events this past week,” said Richard Molloy, MSG president. “We are witnessing a lot more attendance and student participation this year as a whole. It’s very encouraging and we hope to build upon this even more as they year continues.”

MSG also ran the voting for this year’s homecoming court. After a record-setting amount of votes in recent years, and one member stepping down from the court, the nine members of the 2012 Homecoming took the football field at halftime to see who would be crowned King and Queen.

The nominees for Homecoming King were Adam Borgman, Jeremy Dickey, Adam Ferrari and Ben McCormick.

The nominees for Homecoming Queen were Adrianne LaGruth, Caitlin Handerhan, Kaleigh Hubert, Kelsey Trosch and Rhona Boyle.

Adam Ferrari and Kaleigh Hubert were crowned this year’s Homecoming King and Queen.