The week of events commemorating the inauguration of Michael Le Roy culminated with the Campus Inaugural Celebration in the Spoelhof Fieldhouse on Saturday night.

The event was the first of the year for Nite Life and lasted from 9 p.m. to 12:30 a.m.

The Spoelhof Fieldhouse was filled with an assortment of fun games and entertainment.  A volleyball court, wrecking ball bouncing pit, laser tag and human foosball were among the games held inside of the Hoogenboom Health and Recreation Center.

JB Britton, associate dean of student development, said that the goal was to make the Campus Inaugural Celebration a student-focused event for inauguration week.

“The idea was to have an event that a lot of students could attend,” said Britton.  “Last year we started Nite Life for the winter, so we said why not start Nite Life two weeks early this year?  We thought we’d launch it after the inauguration.”

“We wanted to make this event Nite Life on steroids,” he said.

The Campus Inaugural Celebration was both a beginning and end; it concluded inauguration week at Calvin, and it commenced Nite Life, which will host fun events for students every weekend throughout the winter season.

At the entrance of the fieldhouse was an Octaball ring.  The game, which is an Israeli version of dodgeball, was very popular with students.  Throughout the night, students were crowded around the ring, moving in and out to play the game.

Britton said that the Octaball ring was constructed this year for the Campus Inaugural Celebration, and it will be set up at the entrance to the fieldhouse for the other upcoming Nite Life events.

A host of crafts and other activities were set up inside the Spoelhof Center atrium.  The activities included pumpkin carving and other arts and crafts.  Students had glitter, paints, colors and carving tools at their disposal for making pumpkins. Another seasonal activity for students was making Christmas lights.

Junior Brooke Kuzera and her friend were looking around at the variety of things to do at the celebration event, and came across the craft-making tables.

“We carved pumpkins and we explored the dance area and now we found ourselves here [doing crafts],” said Kuzera. “We’re making Christmas lights now.”

Junior Elise Kaufman was another fan of the event.

“I really enjoyed the dance party and the pumpkin carving was fun,” she said.

In addition, the rock climbing wall was open for students.  The jazz band Elgin Vines was playing near the rock wall.  Inside of the Van Noord Arena was a dance party with a DJ.

Octaball, wrecking ball and laser tag were some of the most well-liked games among students.

“I played Octaball and wrecking ball,” said junior Christopher Thyberg. “The wrecking ball was a lot of fun.”

Senior Anna De Haan was supervising the wrecking ball game. De Haan works for Calvin intramurals, which partnered with Nite Life for the Campus Inaugural Celebration.

“A lot of people are coming back for it,” said De Haan.

Junior Corrin Timmer was a Nite Life helper who assisted in planning and working the Campus Inaugural Celebration.

“It’s in celebration of President Le Roy,” said Timmer.  “We got a big budget for this event, more than all our other Nite Life events.  So we decided to go big.”

The number of students who attended the celebration exceeded expectations.

“Our goal was 1,000 students,” said Timmer. “But right now we think we have more than 1,500.  I love seeing how many people showed up and seeing so many faces.”