Friday, May 3—From 1 to 3 p.m., the Office of Housing and Residential Life at the University of Massachusetts Boston held the first ever Beacon Block Party, to celebrate the end of the first year of the Residence Halls being occupied.
The block party had three free food trucks right next to the dorms, available for all UMass Boston students and faculty. They had Cookie Monstah, Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, and Moyzilla available for students to choose from. There had been a lot of advertisement for the party around campus, so it wasn’t surprising when there was a huge turnout. Over 830 people came out to see what was happening.
Besides the food out in the parking lot, there was free soda, cotton candy, ice cream and snacks available inside the Clark Athletic Center as well. Along with all the food, there was a photo booth and multiple bounce houses to compete against your friends in. Music played throughout the building and outside, and clubs had set up to table and recruit some new members for next semester.
If you didn’t have a spot in line by 1:15 p.m., you were going to be waiting for a while to get your food. While it’s great that there was such a huge turnout, it did seem that they weren’t expecting things to get so hectic so quickly. The first group of people who got their wrist bands were able to go to two out of three of the food trucks, and after a while they had to cut it down to only being able to go to one food truck, in order to limit the amount of food each person was taking and ration it out more equally among students.
Though it was busy and crazy, students seemed to have a good time. One student, Kendall Economou, who is a current resident in the dorms, said: “I like what they tried to do here. The food truck was a really good idea. But I feel like they’re going to run out of food so maybe they should change that for next time. The events they offered have been fun so far, so we’ve enjoyed it.”
Each food truck had a designated menu for this event. At Cookie Monstah, there were three options of ice cream sandwiches, including one cookie. Moyzilla had dumplings and vegetable rolls. Roxy’s Grilled Cheese, of course, had basic grilled cheese, and then another option that included guacamole and bacon. Everything tasted great, the workers handled the crowds well and worked efficiently, and it turned out really well. It was exciting to throw a party like this for the end of the year, as so much has happened involving the dorms in such a short amount of time. This event is supposed to happen again as of now; they urge students to keep checking their UMass Boston email so they can respond to the survey to help the Office of Housing and Residential Life improve for next time!
