Student involvement in the community is a UConn tradition

It happened every spring, fueled by the pent-up energies of students facing the close of the academic year and final exams. One faculty member was quoted in May 1954, saying that if students "put half as much effort into their studies, they would all get A's."

But it was energy directed for a purpose. The Campus Community Carnival raised thousands of dollars for charity over the years, and its legacy of the Campus Outreach program and Month of Kindness, among many activities, continues to energize and inspire students today.

The 1951 Community Carnival midway stretches alongside Fairfield Road, in the area of the present day Homer Babbidge Library. Enlarge

It began in the spring of 1948 as the Community Chest Carnival, with 10 tents on a midway established first on Fairfield Road, then the Student Union Mall, and later in the old ROTC hanger. Students from fraternities, sororities and residence halls operated dunking booths, kissing booths, turtle races and a variety of carnival games inside the tents. The activities attracted the attention of students, faculty and staff who contributed their dimes and quarters for charities. UConn's service fraternity, Alpha Phi Omega, sponsored the overall event.

As the carnival grew larger - expanding from one weekend to a week or more - it included a campus-wide parade with a route that traveled down Route 195 from Mansfield Road to North Eagleville Road, rivaling the Homecoming parade with trophies for creative floats. Residence halls also earned awards for raising the most money.

By 1957 the CCC had raised more than $40,000 in nine years. That year about $5,500 was collected for programs that included the Girl and Boy Scouts, American Red Cross, Mansfield Volunteer Fire Department, Windham Hospital Fund, and Mansfield Nursing Association. In 1960, the Connecticut Daily Campus described it as "the third largest carnival of its type in the United States and the largest on the eastern seaboard."

Along the way, WHUS, the student radio station, joined, with an annual marathon that attracted pledges from students. In 1961, pledges from a minimum of 25 cents to a maximum of $25, raised $1,375 in 81 hours. By the 1970s student disc jockeys enticed pledges by continuously playing an annoying recording they called "The Gong Gong Song" (actually titled "I'm Blue") for its use of off-key bangs and gongs in the chorus. Students called in pledges to get that song off the air and have their requests played.

The radio marathon and CCC may have been victims of their own success as well as changing student attitudes. The 1972 event raised a record $19,000 - well above the goal of $12,000.

The next year, only $16,227 of a $20,000 goal was raised and interest in the annual event began to wane. By 1978, only the radio marathon was held and in 1979, a walkathon raised about $1,000. After more than 40 years, the Campus Community Carnival slipped into history.

In its final years, the CCC was eclipsed by its closing event, the highly anticipated Spring Weekend concert, but student service and charitable giving continued. In the 1980s and into the 1990s, there were annual "Jail and Bail" events to support the American Cancer Society, as well as other charitable activities.

The Campus Outreach program was organized in the 1990s and today continues to coordinate student involvement in a variety of causes, from Habitat for Humanity to Red Cross blood drives, keeping alive the spirit of the Campus Community Carnival.

-- Mark J. Roy '74 (CLAS)