Hoss’s Market & Rotisserie prepared 275 pounds of pulled pork and 275 pounds of brisket. Monster brought 1,920 cans of energy drinks. Insomnia Cookies baked 5,000 cookies. Jimmy John’s made nearly 2,000 sandwiches.
Needless to say, there was no shortage of food at MU’s annual Midnight Barbecue, and it’s all free for students. The event kicked off at 10 p.m. Aug. 19 on Rollins Street and lasted until 1 a.m.
Environmental Leadership Office advisor Amy Eultgen volunteered at the barbecue for her third straight year. One of her favorite parts of the event is seeing students meet directly after they move in.
“I love seeing new students interact with each other for the first time,” Eultgen said. “I’ve been watching everyone move in this week so it’s been really fun seeing their first event that Mizzou holds.”
At the barbecue there is food, games, music and opportunities to sign up for MU activities.
“I like being around everyone here, having some music and meeting new people,” freshman Liz Kirkman said.
Brighton Mirtsching is a graduate assistant who collected assessments on the success of the barbecue from different students. She also helped with planning for the event.
“The biggest thing that we work on is getting sponsorships,” Mirtsching said. “So, as you can imagine, it’s a huge event … it’s a very expensive event to put on, so we reach out to businesses who want this opportunity to market to the students. That’s the biggest undertaking.”
Mirtsching also noted in an e mail that an estimated 16,000 students came to the barbecue.
Though Mirtsching did not look at this year’s assessments yet at the barbecue, she said she was very pleased with one trend from last year.
“An overwhelmingly large number of the freshmen say that it makes them feel very welcome to campus and that’s just great because that’s really what we’re trying to do,” Mirtsching said.
There is also a great deal of set up that goes into the barbecue, which is organized by the Department of Students Activities. MSA/GPC Tech helps with planning and sets up tables and tents for the event. Junior Brandon Spink is a member of MSA/GPC and worked at the event from 4 p.m. to 3 a.m.
“It just takes lots of time and effort,” Spink said. “Everything people take for granted, there’s a whole lot of work that goes into it.”
One tent belonged to the Student Veterans Association, who grilled hot dogs and vegetarian hamburgers to hand out to students.
“My favorite part of the event is honestly just getting back here with my fellow student veterans, great guys and gals, all different types of walks of life, working with them and then giving back to the greater Mizzou community,” Student Veterans Association president Sean Mclafferty said. “It’s just an outstanding experience.”
For Mirtsching, her favorite part is talking to all of the new MU students. She particularly likes talking to freshmen coming from other states.
“I was an out-of-state undergrad and I love hearing where the freshmen are from, what they’re majoring in,” Mirtsching said. “They’re so enthusiastic and they’re just really excited to finally be here. I love connecting with them on their first night on campus.”
