Olivia Richman, General Assignment Reporter:
Free t-shirts, free ice cream, and free jewelry were just some of the items being given away on Broadway Street in New Haven last Friday.
Students from Quinnipiac, SCSU, the University of New Haven and Yale flocked to Broadway for free fun, free stuff and discounts at popular stores in the area.
“All of the interns are from different schools,” said Evan Bieber, the senior programmer in Programs Council at SCSU, “so we all worked together to put in our ideas and talk about how we will promote at each school. It’s great to meet new people from different schools and come together for a night.”
Bieber, an intern at the Yale University Properties, was assigned to promote the event.
According to Bieber, his job for College Night on Broadway this year was to help out with the marketing and promotion for the event.
He said he made the designs for the posters, flyers, table tents, t-shirts and more.
He said his favorite part of the night was the raffle.
“Everyone always gets excited about the possibility of winning,” said Bieber. “It feels great at the end of the day to know you made someone’s day better.”
Two students who had their names drawn were the lucky winners of either an iPad or a 40-inch flat screen television.
The winners were announced at the end of the night. But students didn’t have to be raffle winners to receive free items.
Kiara Villone, from the University of New Haven, said she had taken advantage of a lot of the giveaways.
“We got some fried dough and got some ice cream,” she said.
Ashley’s Ice Cream was giving away a free large scoop of ice cream near the raffle table.
There were four choices of ice cream, including cookie dough and vanilla.
There was also a fried dough truck parked outside one of the stores that offered free fried dough for anyone with a student ID.
The only problem was the lines, according to students.
Kiara Hearn, a Yale student, claimed she was “dragged (to College Night) against (her) will,” and said the lines were preventing her from having fun.
“I waited in a very long line in Denali to get a caricature that we still haven’t gotten. Then we came out to look for food, which we still haven’t gotten. So basically we did nothing,” Hearn said.
After a while Hearn and her friends were able to get the caricature.
Ashley Whitehead, who came to College Night on Broadway for free food and a caricature, said she waited in line for a caricature and got the free scoop of ice cream.
“I liked it very, very much,” said Whitehead of the free caricature.
Tiffany Hing, Whitehead’s friend, said she agreed.
“It was wonderful, it was beautiful,” said Hing. “The caricature really captured our personalities.”
Carisa Sanchez, a student at SCSU, said she went to the event to get some of the giveaways.
“I got free stuff,” said Sanchez, “and looked around in some stores because I haven’t been in them before.”
Not only were there freebies around Broadway, there were discounts at different clothing stores, jewelry stores and restaurants on the street. Barnes and Noble Bookstore at Yale was 20 percent off, as well as J. Crew.
A crowd favorite, Urban Outfitters, had up to 30 percent off clothing items. Evan Bieber said he made a beeline for the sales.
“I love Urban Outfitters,” he said, “so I took advantage of the deals they were offering.”
Overall, Bieber said he believes that College Night on Broadway, which he said has been going on every semester for longer than he can remember, has always been fun and was a success this year.
“We had so many people,” he said, “and everyone was having a great time.”
