With the Christmas season coming up fast, many groups on campus are hosting holiday themed events.The Center for Physical Activity is hosting its own Christmas event for a good cause.
The CPA is partnering with Bucky’s Food Pantry to host the first ever Santa Climb. The Santa Climb will take place on Wednesday from 5 to 8 pm.
“I was trying to think of fun special events that we could do to get people to come out,” Ariel Seehorn, coordinator of Outdoor Adventure, said. “I just thought, ‘Let’s have a photo with Santa in front of the [climbing] wall,’ and then I said, ‘Let’s put Santa on the wall so you’ll actually have to climb to get to Santa.'”
The event is free for students and staff with a CPA membership, and donations for Bucky’s Food Pantry are encouraged. The main goal of the event is to collect donations for Bucky’s Food Pantry, and to preview events taking place at the CPA in the spring.
“It’s kind of like an end of the year holiday celebration,” Seehorn said.
Santa will be in a harness about halfway up the climbing wall in the CPA, level with the second floor balconies. Seehorn said it’s a great way for people to take photos with Santa and to discover how easy the climbing wall is to master.
“We have really easy routes and more challenging routes,” Seehorn said. “And we want to show people that you don’t have to be an expert climber to come to the wall.”
For students who do not want to climb the wall, there will be an opportunity to take pictures with Santa on the ground.
“It’s a three hour long event, so Santa’s not going to be up there the whole time,” Seehorn said. “He’ll have to come down, walk around, and shake out his legs a little bit. He can’t just dangle there for three hours.”
Seehorn hopes that at the end of the night, students will be a little more familiar with the CPA, so that way they can use the facilities to their benefit.
“I know that finals are coming up and people are starting to get stressed out,” Seehorn said. “Exercising and climbing is a really beneficial way to get stress out.”
