Sunny skies, relaxing yoga and the main attraction, cute puppies, drew over 150 students to the campus green where bystanders would have seen students joyously interacting with the furry friends in attendance.
In collaboration with Freedom Paws, Paws for a Cause and the REC Center, the Flash Activities Board held their first Puppy Yoga event of the semester on the campus green Tuesday night.
Riley Sipe, a freshman fashion design major, cheerfully petted a puppy as she recalled her thoughts when she first heard about the event.
“I haven’t had a lot of things to do other than sit in my dorm, so it was just kind of a way to get out and do something,” Sipe said. It’s a great way to learn about things to do on campus and to meet new people on campus.”
Madalynn Wagner, the director of FAB Tuesdays and a senior managerial marketing major, organized the event for her first time and was excited about the turnout, she said.
“I thought this would be a great event for the first couple weeks of school with all the freshmen and since it is so nice out,” Wagner said. “I finally went to execute it and I knew it was going to be a great event for everyone to participate in.”
Prior to the event, FAB was giving away a free yoga mat to the first 30 people along with two giveaway baskets. Everyone was allowed to enter for a chance to win.
Students started to line up about an hour prior to the event starting. Toryn Hudson, a sophomore fashion design major, and Camryn Sobie, a freshman criminology major, were the first two people in line for the event.
“The line started at about four, but I got here at 3:45 and was sitting ready to go,” Sobie said. “We met up with each other and just started talking and have just been enjoying the sun.”
Hudson recalled being very excited over the announcement of the FAB event.
“I love puppies, I love yoga, so it was perfect,” Hudson said. “I figured it would help because I miss my dogs a lot.”
As students were let onto the campus green, about 10 energetic and fluffy dogs awaited their arrival.
Students congregated around all the friendly faces, especially the loveable, brown-haired goldendoodle, Pineapple, as they waited for yoga to begin.
“Dogs are really good for destressing,” said Kaitlyn Rice, Paws for a Cause president and junior chemistry major.
Rice continued to talk about how the club has incorporated the dogs into their events.
“We did puppy yoga last year for our club members as a de-stress event,” Rice said. “It’s always good to relax and be able to pet some dogs.”
Ava Turkal, a freshman speech pathology major, spent the evening going around to all the dogs and capturing pictures of them. Golden retriever, Erie, smiled for the camera when posing with Ava and her friends.
“I like that yoga calms me down with everything going on in my life,” Turkal said. “It’s adorable to add puppies to that. I love puppies. It just makes it fun.”
Leaving the event, Alex Klotz, a freshman speech pathology major, and Rose Neal, a freshman sports medicine major, said they enjoyed the evening for multiple reasons, but largely in part to Channel, the youngest puppy in attendance, who was full of energy.
“It was definitely a nice break from going to class and doing everything else, so I thought that was nice,” Klotz said.
Not only did the event have a benefit for students, but it also helped the dogs in a positive way.
“It’s always good for the dogs to socialize so this is a really good event because there are all kinds of different people doing different things,” Rice said. “It makes people happy to see the dogs around campus.”
Wagner said she was excited with the positive interaction the event attracted on social media and looks to keep followers engaged with future events.
“It is just a great opportunity to come outside, hang out with some puppies, do some yoga, relax and just take time to just think about yourself,” Wagner said. “I hope we can do more stuff like this in the future because as you see everyone is so excited and ready for it.”
Adrianna Quinlan is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].
