The Pokemon Go craze that swept the globe during the summer months manifested on the Weber State University campus on Sept. 7, as trainers, students and their families gathered at the Shepherd Union Building ready to explore campus and catch ’em all.
The first Poke Hunt was hosted by Weber Walks, part of the WSU Student Wellness Center.
Pokemon decorations were on and surrounding the registration table where the first 100 people to check in were given a free water bottle.
A photo booth was available for participants to hop in and snap a photo with a Pokemon while they waited for the event to begin.
Student Wellness Coordinator Rochelle Creager said in addition to helping students get out and be active she wants them to know they can be healthy without going to the gym. Creager believes that walking on campus is both an easy and accessible way of doing just that.
During the check in process, participants were asked to report their starting number of Pokemon before receiving their water bottle and waiting to start the hunt.
Those participating were given one hour to catch as many Pokemon as possible. The beginning of the walk was indicated by the clock tower chiming 6 p.m.
Several maps of campus were drawn up with walking routes of varying levels of intensity, some designed to help students hatch eggs faster while others focused on hitting as many gyms as possible.
The routes were given names after towns in the original Pokemon games, including the Pallet route and Vermillion route.
As participants made their way through campus trying to catch the most Pokemon, there were volunteers around to place stickers onto a punch card that could be entered into a drawing for prizes.
One of the volunteers, Amber Fast, said she wants to help make students’ college experiences awesome and that she wants students to “be involved and be a Wildcat.”
Creager said the event was a success and that the center hopes to host similar events in the future.
“Once you feel more comfortable with exercise and getting over the ‘gymtimidation,’ WSU’s facilities are actually really great, but getting yourself to that point where you feel okay being physically active does take time,” Creager said. “And we just want that intimidation to not be a factor for people being active.”
The event was student planned by the summer semester’s Weber Walks interns and executed by this semester’s students, according to Student Wellness intern Kristina Ainge.
For more information about the Student Wellness Center or upcoming events students can go online.
