Image: Banana Day, via @wcurammy
Wednesday, April 17th, 2024 marked the 28th annual celebration of Banana Day here at West Chester University. The monkeying around took place between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., and despite the poor weather, people were still out and about enjoying the day. Thanks to the Students Activities Council (SAC) and the other cosponsors, there were many banana-themed games, foods and activities to participate in.
A specially designed T-shirt is released every year, but obtaining one is no simple task. You cannot just walk up and be handed the shirt — that would be far too easy and no fun. To get their hands on the neon orange, Scooby-Doo-themed souvenir, students had to compete in games such as tug-of-war, banana toss, banana spoon race, climbing the rec rock wall and banana-themed trivia. And let me say that students were not playing around this year, the competition was fierce.
The Banana Day festivities took place all across campus. No matter where you went, you were sure to find some banana themes around you. The main festivities took place in the Academic and Residential Quads, Ram Park and Sykes Student Union. There were also other events taking place inside Anderson Hall and The Rec Center.
One of the favorite activities this year was held outside of the Sykes main entrance. It was the Stuff-A-Banana event, and students were waiting hours to be able to participate, but Rammy was there in his blue and yellow banana button-down entertaining the crowd.
Obviously, Banana Day would not be properly celebrated without an assortment of banana foods. Ram Park hosted three food trucks: Amanda’s Bananas, Chilly Banana and Bananarama. All three offered banana whips with an assortment of toppings. I got a Rice Krispie-topped banana whip from Amanda’s Bananas and it was delicious. Despite not loving bananas, I ate the whole thing and would have gone back for seconds if there were not a ton of other treats to try. The Residential Quad held a Banana Split bar and an assortment of foods by Aramark. The Banana split bar had a line of people choosing toppings and filling up on bananas. You could also find Erica’s Banana Cakes in the Academic Quad, and this was my favorite treat of the day. The cake came in a personal-size pan and was incredibly moist with the perfect amount of banana flavoring. I went to go back for another one, but when I arrived, they were all gone so it is safe to say I was not the only one enjoying them. Of course, no matter where you went there were actual bananas everywhere and people enjoying them. But those thousands of peels did not go to waste — WCU had composting bins all over campus and put those peels to good use.
This year was my first Banana Day, and it is safe to say that I will be attending them for the rest of my time here at WCU. What is not to love about an event entirely banana-themed? It has a certain a-PEEL.
Anna Weinstein is a first-year English major. AW1010895@wcupa.edu.