Wildcats lit up the night with glow-in-the-dark laser tag on Feb. 10 at Weber State University’s Davis campus.
Over 120 students and community members attended the event. Students painted their faces with glow-in-the-dark, brightly colored florescent paint.
Mckell Costley partnered with Lauren Williams, both of whom are members of the Davis Campus Planning Committee, to organize the event.
“This is our first big event of the year. This is a way to kind of bring together all the different demographics we have here on Davis campus,” Costley said. “We see people bringing their kids, their dates and even just their friends and roommates.”
Williams was initially concerned about student attendance, hoping for 100–150 students to participate in the event.
“Our biggest challenge is attendance — with us being a smaller campus, it’s always a challenge to get the student turn out,” Williams said. “We spent a lot of time marketing and reaching out to different communities to advertise this event.”
Erik Ashby, WSU faculty and student adviser, was pleased with the turnout.“I saw some new faces we haven’t seen before. I was really happy about that,” he said.
Students and community members received a short instructional and safety briefing before entering the ballroom in groups of twenty. The room was converted into a laser tag arena, the only source of light coming from black lights and the blinking of vests and lasers.
Players were divided into two teams, red and green, and tasked with shooting the other team while avoiding getting shot themselves. If a player got hit, his or her gun was disabled until he or she went to a recharging station.
At the end of a five-minute time period, the number of kills for each team was calculated to determine the winner.
Attendees reported to have enjoyed the event.
“I would rate this event a 12 out of 10,” said Tyler Nelson.
“I was surprised how well they transformed the space. They did a really good job,” WSU student Taylor Kipp said. “The whole theme with the black lights and barriers really sold it.”
“I didn’t expect it to be as much fun as it was,” Mikayla Williams, WSU freshman, said. “My favorite part was that it takes 10 shots to die, so you could keep playing and recharge if you got hit. That made it really fun.”
“I was on the red team, and we won!” Traditional Student Senator Salim Ben Khalifa said. “My favorite part was meeting new people and forming an instant bond because we are a team now.”
Costley was pleased with the overall event and believes this event can be used as an example that Davis events are as fun as Ogden campus’ events.
“I just want people to come out and have fun in a high-energy event,” Costley said. “More students should come to Davis events. We have the best ones.”
