Over this year’s Fallcoming and Family weekend of Sept. 27–29, as the air began to chill and the trees started to favor their autumn hues, many students of Hamilton College were visited by some familiar faces. There were a great many parents present but also a fair few close friends, alumni, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, and great-grandparents who all came out to be part of the festivities. All in all, 1,600 parents, alumni, and family members visited campus.
The fine weather provided an excellent backdrop for some of the athletic events that took place over the weekend. Various Continentals teams butted heads with opponents from Colby College in a series of sporting events that packed the stands.
In football, the team secured a decisive, hard-fought victory by a score of 45–24. Men’s soccer also took home a win in a grueling match that ended in double overtime with a 1–0 victory. Not to be outdone, women’s soccer earned their own 5–1 win, though they managed to score all their goals in regulation. Field hockey nearly sealed a perfect weekend but ultimately fell to Colby by one goal in overtime.
Beyond athletics, there were also a number of events for the arts-and-entertainment-inclined that showcased student and professional performers. On Friday Sept. 27, the College was host to an hour of jazz music from the Clarinetist Evan Christopher and the rest of his band. On Saturday, Sept. 28, Hamilton students and their families were treated to a fresh rendition of Shakespeare’s classic play
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, presented by Bare Naked Theatre. Also on Saturday were readings of award-winning student creative writing pieces in the Burke Library. Finally, the Alloy Orchestra performed a live musical accompaniment to the Fritz Lang’s genre-defining science fiction silent movie
Metropolis
, which drew a full house.
One parent who attended the Alloy Orchestra/
Metropolis
show said, “This was the first silent movie I had ever seen, as they were kind of before my time, but I really enjoyed it regardless.”
He added that “having worked in a mill when I was a teenager, the mechanical-sounding music that Alloy orchestra performed really captured that sense of metallic rhythm of the film’s factories.”
Another parent attendee said, “I have to say I really liked the scenes in the jazz club, especially when the film would cut from the trouble in the factories to the overwhelming noise of the jazz club.”
Asked what he thought of the weekend as a whole, he said, “It’s been fun, getting to see my student here, catching up, and seeing how he’s doing. Overall it’s been great to go to all these events.”
The weekend also featured a number of fundraising events on campus for student organizations hoping to gain some financial support for their respective clubs and causes. One of the noteworthy fundraising tables present over the weekend was the Microfinance Club’s competition to guess the weight of an impressively grown gourd. Giving out cookies and calling passer-bys over, club representatives at the table promised a 32” flatscreen TV to whoever could guess the weight of the great pumpkins. On Saturday, the club announced in an all-campus email that they “received 299 guesses, raised a record $1512.50 and the pumpkin weighed 358.4 lbs!” The proceeds from the contest will be used to issue small business loans to local entrepreneurs.
Finally, on Sunday, families and close friends of Hamilton’s student population exchanged goodbyes, gifts, and well-wishes to conclude a historic weekend for the College.
