The French and Spanish clubs held a multilingual carnival Friday with games ranging from a flan-eating contest to a three-legged race to bocce ball.
French Club president Maissie Giacovelli said at least 40 people attended the carnival.
“The Carnival turned out very well with the sun shining and music being played by WAUG,” said Giacovelli.
The carnival also had an Eiffel tower stacking competition, pin-the-beret on the French guy, a soccer shootout and food such as crepes and nachos. The event was free to students, and the clubs accepted donations for food.
“We had a good turnout, and all of our booths attracted people,” said Spanish Club President Kelly Ramos via email.
The idea to have a multilingual carnival was decided after each club discussed having a type of outdoor game night.
“We decided to join our clubs because they are both small, and we thought it would help promote both groups,” said Ramos.
Giacovelli said the clubs hope the multilingual carnival will be an annual event that students will become familiar with.
“There can always be improvements made when carrying out an event for the first (time), and we hope to make those improvements next year when hopefully we have another Carnival,” said Giacovelli.
Ramos hopes other clubs will get involved in the annual carnival as well.
Other activities the Spanish Club has been involved in include organizing arts and crafts for children at Casa Guanajuato, an organization that offers services to low-income families in Illinois and Iowa.
The club is also “currently trying to create a Spanish ‘paper’ where we can talk about cultural events happening around Augustana, Rock Island and Spanish speaking countries,” said Ramos.
French Club, which has bi-monthly meetings, has a few larger events each year.
“We had the crepe run back at the end of fall term,” said Giacovelli. “That turned out really well, so we’re thinking about doing another one possibly again later this term.” The club also made French valentines in February.
Overall, Giacovelli said the multilingual carnival went well and is excited for next year’s carnival.
“We are very happy with how everything turned out and look forward to future events with Spanish club and anyone else who may want to help us,” said Giacovelli.