For all the families who are wondering about the status of Family Weekend this weekend because of Hurricane Michael, we have a statement for you. The short version is this:
Family Weekend Weather Update: Wake Forest officials are closely monitoring Hurricane Matthew and its progress in coordination with local and state partners. We encourage anyone traveling to the community to monitor the weather and evaluate transportation plans for safety. Current weather predictions suggest minimal impact in Winston-Salem and the surrounding areas. All planned activities are proceeding as scheduled. [read the full message here with additional weather links and more].
The behind-the-scenes on all of this is that there was not enough information about Michael’s path to make a well-informed decision until today. Please know that there were many people working on this and monitoring behind the scenes.
Tomorrow is one of my all-time favorite days on campus: Hit the Bricks. If you have a first-year student, please urge them to go up to the Quad between 11 am-7:00 pm to see all the festivities. It is so heartwarming to watch students, faculty, and staff walking and running laps to help raise awarness and funds for cancer research. Truly Pro Humanitate at its best.
There is great people watching too! I love to see which Hit the Bricks teams seem to be super hard core. Some of them have serious strategies in terms of runner deployment, rest breaks, etc. If this year is like last year, there are periodic contests throughout the day – Wacky Costume was one in the past (I wore my wedding dress for that lap!)
It’s also fun to see the students in the Quad grass. Student organizations or teams might have their own rest area for their team, some have refreshments, others have encouraging signs, and more. There will be chairs and sofas and all manner of creativity at work. The grand conclusion is a lap at 7 pm, where there are luminaries in honor of people who have battled (or are battling) cancer. It’s so moving.
Not sure how much of HTB will be viewable from the Quad Cam tomorrow, but it’s worth a shot. And if that doesn’t work, here are some HTB pictures from past years.
