On Friday, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., SMICK Day, the sixth and final event of Saint Mary’s Spirit Week, took place on Library Green. This is the fifth year that SMICK Day has been held and hosted by the College.
Spirit Week occurred from Sept. 21 to last Saturday as advertised in emails sent by the Office of Student Involvement and various student groups that sponsored them, alongside posters plastered throughout the campus that outlined the week’s events. SMICK Day was hosted by the College's Student Government Association (SGA).
Once students got to Library Green, they were greeted with different theme activities and a big “SMICK” sign. At the beginning of the event, a long line of students gathered to receive a free sweatshirt related to SMICK Day by various members of SGA.
This year, SGA decided to make this year’s theme “Belle Air” and center the activities of this event loosely based on air travel. Both junior Isabella Cuadra, co-chair of the Student Life Committee and sophomore member Madeline Freeman, discussed how easily the theme came to them.
“Belle Air, I feel like, just sounds so smooth, so we were like, ‘You know what? Let’s go with that,’ Cuadra explained. “There was a lot to play off of it too. There’s a lot to do with the theme.”
Adding onto that statement, junior Daniela Rivera, director of internal affairs for SGA, noted how the theme can also relate to how the students on campus may feel about traveling.
“We wanted to represent through this event not only a sense of airlines and all that kind of stuff,” she described. “But also recognizing the fact that a lot of students are traveling through all these different points in our lives and that’s how we want to connect it back to student life.”
Some of the activities that appeared to be the most connected with the Belle Air theme the SGA members discussed, including the luggage tag making activity on tables scattered around the grass. Alongside this, an inflatable bouncy house was present where students could “take pictures of their trip,” according to an email sent by SGA.
Students were also allowed to customize the food and drinks at the event through the mini pancake station and dirty soda bar, which was sponsored by Coca-Cola, according to Freeman.
“I think it’s so cool to see how the different girls can express themselves through the different activities that we do,” junior Kayla Pleiness, member of the Social Concerns Committee of SGA, said.
As students would get their drinks from the dirty soda bar, they were able to sign their names and emails to a ticket where they would have the chance of receiving the items up for display in a giveaway. The winners were announced later that evening at 6:30 p.m. by College President Katie Conboy.
Conboy shared that she has attended SMICK Day every year since it was established, explaining that it was because of the empowerment she felt with the student body reclaiming the term “Smick."
“It used to be almost used in a little bit of a derogatory way and they said ‘no,’” she explained. “It actually means something powerful. It means women who are gonna go out and do amazing things in the world, and this is what ‘Smicks’ are and this is what they stand for … I just love it and I love being out and seeing people together and seeing them actually being what I just said.”
Rivera also talked about the significance of how the term, Smick, was used and how it impacted the significance of SMICK Day and other related events that came before.
“I love that the purpose of SMICK Day is to reclaim that word as students and just uplift us,” she emphasized. “Looking also beneath the surface it’s reclaiming that word, Smick, and reclaiming that pride that comes along with it. I can say I’m proud to be a Smick and we can show it through these events.”
Both Rivera and Pleiness also expressed hope that others will get enjoyment and purpose out of both SMICK Day and upcoming events SGA hosts in the future.
