Evelyn Filleman
The Knights social club hosts a function in which member dates are “grabbed” by the girl. This annual event, called Sadie Hawkins, was held this past Saturday, Feb. 22, and involved coordination across all clubs.
“Knights [puts on] Sadie Hawkins every year as a tradition to open our functions up to anyone who wants to go to something without the pressure of being asked,” senior and Knights activities director Tyler Bradley said. “Sadie Hawkins is a chance for girls on campus to go to random things like a monster truck rally with a club that they might not be too familiar with.”
Before the event, the Knights directors let every girl’s club know when their “grab day” will be. On “grab day”, the eligible Knights members wear their jerseys, and any girl is allowed to ask them to attend the function. This year, the function was at “Monster Jam” in Little Rock.
“The event that we are going to is called “Monster Jam,” which is a monster truck rally in Little Rock,” Bradley said. “[It] puts 8 different monster trucks against each other in [various] events to compete for the trophies at the end of the night. We have around 60 members signed up with dates, which puts us at about 120 tickets.”
The event, which remains one of Knights’ most popular, involves a lot of coordination and planning on the strategic end of the matter.
“One of the bigger challenges is setting up ‘grab day’,” junior Knights activities director Jacob Carlin said. “We have to communicate with all the girls clubs when it will be and the process for asking one of our guys. Another major challenge for this year was buying all the tickets. This was mainly a challenge because I had to go to Little Rock and pick up the tickets, then hand them out to the members that signed up.”
The event is fun for both members and guests alike; Skylar Hembree, sophomore attended the event with Isaac Brown, freshman, and found it to be a good experience for everyone in attendance.
“I think one of the main things that makes people find Sadie Hawkins so appealing is the fact that they really don’t know what they’re getting into,” Hembree said. “I find Knights to be a fun and entertaining group of people to be around, so you already know that no matter what the event is, it’s going to be a little wild and a lot of fun. The best part of Monster Jam was when Sparkle Smash, one of the trucks, did a backflip. The whole audience went insane, and Knights went ballistic, and everyone was jumping and cheering when the truck landed its trick.”
Not only does the Knights event give a fun experience for its attendees, it also represents the inclusive heart aspect of Harding social clubs in general. Its purpose is to help students have a great time with people they enjoy being around, and for many, this fulfills the general goal of Harding social clubs.
“I think Harding clubs bring an aspect of community to campus life, and they bridge connections between different groups of people, or even majors that probably wouldn’t be around each other,” Hembree said. “Events like Sadie Hawkins are great because you get to go and do something fun that you wouldn’t normally do with a group of friends, all while tagging it as a club event!”
