Last Saturday, residents of the KE apartments celebrated the warm fall weather by dedicating an afternoon to activities such as basketball, volleyball, beanbag toss, water balloon games and a slip-n-slide. While KE Field Day has traditionally taken place in the spring, it came early this year in hopes of fostering a spirit of community.

The orchestrators of Field Day events, members of the programming activities council, were originally hoping to host these games tournament-style. However, due to limited response from residents, it became more of a join-when-you-have-time type of afternoon.

“A lot of college students are pretty spontaneous anyway,” said Katherine Ryan, programming activities coordinator (PAC), as she prepared to run down hallways and announce the day’s events.

Although both are on campus, dorm community and apartment community are very different. According to senior Phil Stepnowski, one contributing factor is that, unlike in the dorms where residents are encouraged to leave their doors open, “Doors in the apartments are closed, so the community is not naturally so open. It takes a bit more intentionality to be communal.”

Senior Valerie Tan has been living in the KE apartments for three years: “You have to come out and meet people. Once you do, there is a strong sense of community.”

That’s what events such as KE Field Day, the MudBowl Tournament, Super Sundae Monday, pancake breakfasts, cookouts, weekly worship and Bible studies are for — getting people out of their apartments and into fellowship with their neighbors.

According to Bethany Love, a junior and PAC, leadership in the apartments has changed to be more like the dorms. Positions include PACs, resident assistants (RAs) and members of the Knollcrest East Serving Others team (KESOs). “More people are in leadership positions, so there’s more involvement,” Love explained.

After a day of activities in the sun, Love’s fellow PAC, junior Abigail Brinks, reported, “We didn’t have a huge turn out number wise, but everyone who was there had a really great time!”

So if you’re living in the KE apartments and missed Field Day, don’t worry. There are more activities headed your way.