By Nia Mwangi

Staff Writer

The First Year Collective, also known as FYC, is an organization at UMHB that seeks to grow first-year students through discipleship, leadership, service and spirit. The organization is split into seven groups, each led by two leaders.

FYC hosts weekly meetings at 8 p.m. on Mondays in McLane Great Hall. Typically, the meetings include a welcome from FYC leaders, a game, a biblical message and small-group breakouts. However, April 6 was different.

The theme for the night was “Color Wars.” Each group was assigned a color: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink or black. The colors were paired into teams: red with orange, yellow with pink, green with purple and blue with black.

After gathering in McLane Great Hall, groups dispersed across campus to participate in different activities. The blue and black groups went to Burt Pond, where leaders Cari Davis and Abigail Staples shared a story they called “Randy O’Rear’s crab.”

“I was just wandering around in Walmart and saw the crab,” Davis, a junior computer science major, said. “I thought, ‘That’s really funny.’ Then Abigail thought we should give it some lore. When we were freshmen, our FYC leaders would do silly things like that.”

After telling the story, Davis threw the crab into the pond near the fountain. Staples, a junior Christian ministry major, and Davis then split the blue and black teams into pairs, with one member from each color. After giving them time to talk, each pair completed a handshake activity. Members of the black team dipped their hands into the pond, while members of the blue team covered their hands in blue paint before shaking hands.

“I don’t know if anyone expected it,” Catherine Richards, a sophomore pre-nursing major, said. “But the whole vibe of FYC is super goofy and fun. We’re here to make memories, so whatever they’d want me to do, I’d do it.”

The blue and black teams later walked to Shannon Commons, where they ended the night with a game of Mafia.

“When they told us it was going to be a fun night, I was like, ‘What the heck does that mean?’” Richards said. “I definitely needed to blow off some steam, play games and be super goofy and outrageous. It’s always fun to be involved in campus lore.”