This past weekend, Sept. 14-16, UTM hosted the second annual Family Weekend for students and their families.
Family Weekend gives students a chance to experience UTM and the community of Martin with their family members. The event features food trucks, the Bowtie 5K, Donuts with the Deans, a UTM football game, a drive-in movie, brunch and other activities throughout the weekend.
The weekend began on Friday, Sept. 14, with Family Food Truck Night.
The night was filled with food, music and games. There were nine different foods trucks representing a variety of different foods and tastes.
UTM Chancellor Dr. Keith Carver and UT System President Joe DiPietro attended the event and went on stage to sing for those in attendance. Many of the food trucks closed down early because they ran out of food to feed the massive amount of people in attendance.
Saturday was filled with many events.
The day started off with the second annual Bowtie 5K. The five-kilometer run featured sights from all over campus and many members of the community participated.
After the 5K, people were encouraged to go to Martin Coffeehouse for Donuts with the Deans. This event gave students and their families a chance to talk with deans from the different colleges, encouraging families to get involved with their child’s college experience.
Afterward, there was an open-gym for students and their families to spend time together being active at the Student Recreation Center.
The tailgate party happened, as tradition, just before the football game, late that afternoon and after the game the variety of options for quality time continued.
After a full and warm day, the loved ones were all invited to enjoy a drive-in movie, featuring Avengers: Infinity War in the parking lot beside Pacer Pond.
Family Weekend started to wind down on Sunday with a worship service led by students and the Bowtie Brunch hosted in the Skyhawk Dining Hall by Sodexo Food Services.
Around 800 people participated in this year’s Family Weekend compared to the 550 from 2017’s Family Weekend.
Family weekend has become a successful tradition at UTM and administrators hope to see it progress in the future to remind families that college and supporting students, can always be a family thing.
