Members of the UNH Black Student Union hosted their first ever Roll Bounce roller-skating event on Wednesday, Feb. 8 from 7-9:30 p.m. in the Granite State Room of the Memorial Union Building (MUB). The event was hosted in celebration of Black History Month and tickets were made available at the MUB ticket office: free for students and $3 for non-students.
The event was originally set to start at 7 p.m., but due to technical difficulties, was delayed for approximately 15 minutes.
Upon entering the event, guests were welcomed by loud music videos playing on two large screens, as well as the wafting scent of the cotton candy and popcorn that was provided to attendees. Over at the snack tables, guests were also offered a variety of different foods and drinks including Malta Goya, Jamaican Kola, fried plantains and Takis.
“It’s a celebration of black culture, not just African Americans but Africans in every part of the world, including the Caribbean and Latin American, that’s why we have snacks out that aren’t necessarily typical of American culture,” said Black Student Union advisor Spencer Littles on the topic of the snacks provided.
The food went rather quickly with thirsty patrons constantly skating off and on the disco floor to rehydrate and re-energize.
The room was lit up by multiple strobe lights and decorated in flags from Caribbean, African and Latin nations. In the dimly lit room, participants could be seen skating, dancing, laughing and sometimes tumbling as they adjusted to their new set of wheels.
“I was walking through Union Court with a couple of friends when a free popcorn and cotton candy sign caught our attention, so we thought we’d stop in and check it out,” said UNH junior Alex McIsaac.
The event was funded by the Student Activity Fee and Neon Entertainment provided the roller skating equipment, which included roller rink panels and approximately 75 pairs of roller-skates in a variety of different sizes.
“We’ve wanted to do something like this for a while, so to finally make it actually happen feels great and the people here seem to be enjoying it as well,” said Joyce Lekien, chair of the Black Student Union
Of the attendees, most were students or were invited by friends that attend UNH.
“I heard from a friend that this was going on, and I had nothing else to do so I decided to come,” said sophomore Alex Kittler.
As the end of the event came near, the exhausted participants skated off the now- popcorn-covered floor in search of any remaining cola, water bottles and now lukewarm hot cocoa from Dunkin Donuts. As the music slowly died down and the people in attendance simmered out, there was excitement in the air as tomorrow was a snow day thus allowing time to rest their tired bodies.
