On Wednesday, the LGBTQ Resource Center hosted its annual Queer Fall Fling, an event open to new and old club members, LGBTQ community members and allies.
LGBTQ Resource Center coordinator Struby Struble said the center holds a fling each semester to welcome students back to MU.
“It’s a social for students to meet new people and catch up with old friends,” she said. “This semester we had games, pizza, candy, soda and prizes. Flings have been happening every semester for four years now.”
The attendance from this fall’s event was record-breaking.
“We had about 300 people attend Queer Fall Fling, which is our largest number of participants so far for this event,” Struble said.
Mimi Martinez, a graduate student and one of the event’s coordinators, said everyone is welcome at the Queer Fall Fling.
“This is a community-building event at the beginning of the semester to develop the community around campus and around town,” Martinez said.
The event hosted an array of different activities and games to break the ice with those who are new and comfortably welcome back previous attendees.
This year’s attendees participated in games such as Jumbo Jenga, Apples to Apples and Catchphrase.
By playing one of the many games or creating jewelry at the bead-making booth, players were rewarded with raffle tickets. Tickets also were given out when an attendee signed up for one of the LGBTQ Resource Center’s divisions, such as Queer People of Color or the Triangle Coalition. These raffle tickets were then put in a tub, and two winners were announced every half-hour.
The event was well-received by new attendees like freshman Rachael Grubstein.
“I was expecting a huge group of people I didn’t know, but everyone was so friendly it immediately felt like a family,” Grubstein said. “I wasn’t expecting to have nearly as much fun or make as many friends as I did – the group was so welcoming.”
Graduate student Allison Murphy said the event was different than last year’s.
“My favorite part is seeing it the last four years – this is my fifth one,” she said. “It’s so great seeing how it changes over the years, each year bigger than the last — more and more new people are here that haven’t come in the past.”