Bridgewater, Va. – On Feb. 12, CEAT and the Equestrian Club presented Valentine’s Day Mash Up on Zoom. The event featured games such as finish the lyric, equestrian trivia, and seek and find for BC students to learn more about the equestrian program and transition into the love-filled weekend. 

“Collaborating with CEAT allowed us to engage with students who are not already involved in the [equestrian] program, which was really special for us,” said senior Business Administration major and cross-listed MDMS graduate student Mary Monaco. 

Students were prompted to attend this event by posters placed around campus, campus event emails and a flyer on the MyBC website. 

Junior sociology major Walter Robb, sophomore psychology major Samantha Morse, and Monaco collectively worked together on the event. 

Robb and Morse led the efforts as they are both the community event co-chairs for the Equestrian Club. Monaco, however, is the club president this academic school year. 

All three students have been riding for a significant number of years. 

Robb has been riding for three years and competes with the IHSA team. Morse has been riding for nine years and is also a part of IHSA. Monaco, with the longest experience, has been riding for over fifteen years and is also a member of IHSA.

“We collaborated with CEAT on this event to help spread awareness of our club and what we do as well as engage with more students. We have been trying to hold fun events for equestrian club members this year, and we were super excited at the opportunity to scale up and expand beyond our bubble with this event,” said Monaco. 

The first game of the night was finish the lyric, facilitated by CEAT. Five people tied for third place — all winning a neck and back massager. The second-place winner won $100 to Amazon. The grand prize to the number one contestant was a Nintendo Switch. 

The second game of the night was equestrian trivia, facilitated by the Equestrian Club. The top six winners all received a horse show style ribbon. 

Along with the ribbon, the fourth-place prize was a BC item, the third-place prize was a ring light, the second-place prize was a camera and roll of film and the first-place prize was a laptop.

The third and final game of the night was seek and find, facilitated by CEAT. Nine total rounds were played and each winner won a $50 gift certificate to the campus store. 

At the end of the night, a randomly selected student on Zoom received the grand prize of the night — which was an Edible Arrangement for themself and their valentine. 

“Trivia was lots of fun,” said Monaco. “We are super grateful to CEAT and Student Life for sponsoring the event and helping us select prizes to give away.”

The next event the Equestrian Club is hosting is a Jumper Night Show on Feb. 20. The Equestrian Club will also be hosting fundraisers throughout the semester, along with an egg hunt event potentially in late March. 

“There will definitely be more equestrian events in the future at Bridgewater. It has been a tough year for us with the pandemic preventing our teams from competing and with the SRA changes weighing on our minds, so it means more to us now than ever to be part of the Bridgewater community,” explains Monaco. “I hope plenty of students come out to our community service events. We would also love to co-host more events with Student Life and CEAT.”

If any student or faculty at Bridgewater College has something in mind they would like to see from the Equestrian Club, one may reach out to [email protected].