CAMRY DEAN
Staff Writer
Starting on Friday, friends and family of students are invited to join them on campus for Fredonia’s Family Weekend. The long-standing tradition at Fredonia encourages families of students to spend the weekend in Fredonia, participating in on-campus and community activities.
Following last year’s performance by “America’s Got Talent” mentalist Robert Channing, Spectrum Entertainment has set up a performance by illusionist Leon Etienne, who was also a contestant on the show.
On Oct. 28, Etienne will be performing at the Fredonia Opera House at 8 p.m. Tickets are available through the Campus Life website.
To keep the spirit of the upcoming Halloween holiday, Spectrum is hosting the third annual Psychic Fair with spiritual mediums from the Psychic Caravan in Albion, NY.
The Psychic Caravan is a group of carefully selected psychics that host individual readings, private parties and college events and fundraisers and specialize in tarot cards, palmistry and clairvoyance.
“We try to make it Halloween-ish because it’s always on Halloween weekend, so we try and make it spooky in a way,” Rachel Ando, president of Spectrum, said. “There’s also Safe Halloween going on over the weekend as well, and things like that. We wanted to make it more of that Halloween theme.”
This year, the Psychic Fair is even more special to Spectrum because Fredonia was recently chosen by the Psychic Caravan as their favorite campus because of the welcoming events the campus group hosts.
Because of this, the group was kind enough to offer the services of two mediums for free in addition to the five Spectrum had already booked.
Though the events are hosted by Spectrum, all community members are welcome to join.
“The community is always welcome, and we usually have a lot of community members come, a lot a parents and kids,” Ando said.
In addition to Spectrum’s events, visitors are also encouraged to attend other on-campus events on Friday, such as sporting events, the theatre productions of ‘The Three Musketeers’ and ‘Godspell’ and the Fredonia All College Band.
“I don’t know what we would do without family weekend because it’s so important, especially for kids who go here and the community to see that the school wants that community involvement,” Ando said. “It’s also important that families see what the campus has to offer for their kids. It’s been such a long tradition, and we love doing it.”
Student groups are also encouraged to participate in this year’s Fall Sweep from 9 a.m. to noon on Sunday, Oct. 30. Throughout the morning, groups and individuals spread out across Fredonia to help rake the lawns of the community members who request the help.
“This is only [Spectrum’s] second time doing Fall Sweep, and we actually have a solid 15-person group going, so we’re really excited,” said Ando. “I love when all of the groups get involved.”
For more tickets and more information on events, visit the Family Weekend page of the Fredonia website.
“Spectrum works really hard to put on these events, so it’s great to see support from the campus and community,” Ando said.