Cuddle Crew comes back to campus

Ella Hill

ehill12@uwsuper.edu

 

The Yellowjacket Union was filled with stuffed cuddles on Feb. 12 for Yellowjacket Activities Crew (YAC) Build-A-Buddy event. “Students can stuff stuffed animals. Whichever one they choose from our selection, and they get one for free,” YAC coordinator Charlie Olsen said.

Yellowjacket Union Antrim from the second floor looking down on Feb. 12
Photo by Ella Hill | Promethean

Build-A-Buddy has seen growing success in the eight to nine years it’s been running. This year had 12 buddies to choose from, and the first 75 students received ‘Cuddle Crew’ shirts. Students can choose to make a buddy for themselves or give it to someone they love. “This is my new axolotl, and I like plushies, so I might as well make a plush,” Vance Moench said, who made the axolotl for themself this year.

Promethean’s Beaver on the couch on Feb. 12
Photo by Ella Hill | Promethean

 

Students like Gaia Belich also found community in the buddy and with fellow students. “I chose the axolotl. I think my favorite part is being able to be in a community with people I know and talk to them, listen to music while I make my new friend,” Belich said.

Build-A-Buddy continues to see growing success as an event to bring the University of

Wisconsin-Superior students together through self-love and kindness this Valentine’s Day season. “We [YAC] like build a buddy as an event because we have a lot of students joining together…and it’s something that they can give to a loved one or just stay for themselves with that,” YAC coordinator Chelsy Canales said.

The King of Valentine’s Swing

Cheyanne Warner

cwarner8@uwsuper.edu

 

     Stephanie King is a proud alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She and her husband attended this February’s Valentine’s Swing Dance and have been attending for the 10 years it’s been available.

Valentines Day King is dipping the Valentines Queen at the Valentines Day Swing Dance, Feb. 14
Photo by Cheyanne Warner | Promethean

     The event has become a tradition for the Twin Port’s and is in the Yellowjacket Union’s second floor ballroom. Tickets were $5 and could be purchased on arrival with debit, credit, check, or cash. She and her husband enjoy dancing as much as anyone else.
     “I actually do Zumba, on Monday nights, I do line dancing on Tuesday nights and then whenever we can get out and do ballroom dancing, we’ve done that for years,” Mrs. King said. “Dancing is my bliss! I hate to exercise any other way.”
     “I kind of just came for the music, to support the Jazz Band,” Owen Summers said, a music major of the UWS music department. “I know how difficult it is to learn these songs within a short amount of time, so it’s amazing to see how far they come from literally not seeing the songs until three weeks later performing it [the songs].”
     Dance studios have struggled to make an emergence since social distancing from the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Mrs. King still remembers the time in which ballroom and swing dancing were at the height of its popularity in the Twin Ports.
     There are two widely known instructors associated with community ed. Jon Williams partnered with his wife, Vivian Williams. Together, the Williams’ developed new dance routines such as the “swing trot,” which were taught widely across the United States.