Family Weekend featured 2 new events this year

Luke Taylor, Associate News Editor

This year’s Family Weekend at Eastern featured two new events as programming was adjusted to maintain safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During Friday and Saturday’s lunch and dinner, the dining centers served the winning dessert from the Family Dessert Recipe competition held over the last few days.

Between October 26 and 28, students could use the Panther Dining menu suggestion site to turn in their favorite dessert recipe and try to have it served over the weekend.

While the recipe suggestion box is always open, this competition was a rare opportunity to bring some attention to a favorite recipe.

The winner for this competition was Carrie Benjamin’s recipe submission: Panther Pumpkin Crunch.

Eastern’s Facebook post announcing the winner described the dessert as, “A combination of pumpkin, evaporated milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon, and salt, sprinkled with dry cake mix, drizzled with melted butter, and topped with whipped topping.”

The dessert was available in individual to-go boxes in all of the open dining centers until supplies ran out.

Family Weekend also featured a Virtual Musical Bingo event through eventgameshows.com.

Event Gameshows is a company which offers different programs which can be hired out to host game shows at colleges, retreats, and other events.

With the onset of the pandemic, the company shifted their focus to making these same programs accessible as virtual events.

The “musical bingo” that Eastern hosted is a cross between trivia games and traditional bingo.

Players have to be able to answer trivia questions about everything from boy bands to Disney movies to 80s music so that they can fill out their bingo cards.

The event was held via Zoom. Contestants played against fellow Eastern students in the call, and the whole game was run by a host from Event Gameshows.

The game show company includes a $200 cash prize for whoever wins the bingo game, but Eastern added to that, bringing the prize total to $750 in prizes “including EIU swag and Amazon gift cards,” according to Eastern’s Facebook post about the event.

 

Luke Taylor can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].