On Wednesday, April 19, all students are encouraged to come out and join in the 10 annual Banana Day. It will be a carefree and exciting day to share a laugh, meet new people and enjoy yourself The purpose of Banana day is to bring members of West Chester University and the West Chester community together for a day of fun, involvement, diversity and health and wellness. In celebration of Banana Day’s 10 anniversary, there will be about 10,000 bananas distributed. Many different organizations will be helping out with this day and will be promoting diversity. It’s also a great way for these organizations to advertise and get more students involved. This year, Phi Sigma Pi, WCUR, the Friar’s Society and the Abbe Society will be distributing the bananas.
Banana Day was introduced by Rodolfo (Rudy) Tellez during his senior year at West Chester University in 1996. After many hours of planning, the first ever Banana Day debuted and 3,000 bananas were distributed. Fifty hours of community service were also completed.
In 2000, the official mascots for Banana Day were introduced as “Nana” and “Nanner.” Today, Banana Day is beginning to branch out to other universities. This year, with careful preparation, co-chairs, Stephanie Schrader and Jim Simpkins are planning to make the celebration an event to be remembered.
Different stations will be set up at University Hall, Main Hall, Sykes and Ehringer Hall. There will be individual competitions set up at each station, such as making monkey sounds to win a free T-shirt. Over 400 Banana Day T-shirts will be given away, as opposed to the normal 200. Another way to win a famed Banana Day t-shirt is to log onto the Banana Day website, (http://iws.wcupa.edu/stu/bananaday/) and say why you deserve to win a shirt. WCU senior, Sara Cochran, designed this year’s shirt. There are plenty of opportunities to win.
Although it is too late to get involved with this year’s celebration, interested students should contact Rudy Tellez to be apart of the planning for next year. The planning process will begin in the fall. Banana Olympics will hopefully be featured in next year’s Banana Day, so that is something to students can anticipate.
The Banana Day festivities will begin at 11:50 a.m. The T-shirts are a hot commodity, so students are advised to get to a station as early as possible. The prizes and bananas are expected to go just as quickly. Also, keep your eyes peeled for Nana and Nanner, along with the other mascots, like the ram and the gorilla.
For more information, please visit the aforementioned Banana Day Web site.