https://youtu.be/N09LV6fnnWM

A year ago from today, Central Connecticut students would probably be preparing for spring break and bustling across campus to get to class. This year, students are finding themselves in a different predicament but not any less excited.

Though coronavirus has managed to impact and change much of the university’s behavior, CCSU’s school spirit remains intact thanks to clubs and organizations like Central Activities Network, better known as C.A.N..

“We’ve actually been doing events ever since the pandemic started, even during the summer,” C.A.N. President Nadia Santone said. “We’ve been doing in person and virtual kind of on and off for a year, and it’s been really fun.”

This spring, CCSU can expect to see C.A.N. in action as they host multiple activities on-campus and virtually.

“For March, we’re doing a Vegas-themed month of events. So we’re doing a lot of casino nights, virtual game nights, we’re doing a comedian,” Santone shared.

Santone also revealed that students can look forward to the annual spring concert this April. Much like other events during the pandemic, the performer will be virtual but students will have the option to attend in-person while on-campus or virtually from home this semester.

Though the artist has yet to be revealed, Santone hints “it’s kind of like a good throwback. It’s a really big artist, they’re still big now but they are also very relevant to us growing up.”

The theme of throwbacks and nostalgia have been a big part of C.A.N.’s events this spring. During January and February, the student organization offered several activities that reflected childhood memories.

On their Instagram, C.A.N. hosted their Retro Camera contest, asking students to recreate old photos and make Tik Toks to have a chance to win an Amazon gift card, a Polaroid camera or Nintendo NES game system.

“We also did an ice skating rink and a roller rink, and that was really fun cause we got to see a lot of people on campus participate,” she added.

As one of the first clubs to conduct events on campus again after lockdown, Santone shared C.A.N. had a lot of responsibility to protect the campus community while still promoting Blue Devil spirit.

“We wanted to make sure that we had all the right guidelines in place, that everybody is safe at the in-person events. So we did a mix of in-person and virtual events,”she added.

According to Santone, C.A.N. requires participants to follow all CCSU guidelines while attending on-campus events, such as mandatory masks onsite and fulfilling the daily symptom survey.

C.A.N. also conducts events in waves of 25 students or less to include as many students as possible while following CDC guidelines.

With numbers showing a reduced spreading  of coronavirus, Santone believes that C.A.N. has been and will continue to be successful with hosting more in-person events on campus in the future.

“It’s been a little harder creatively to get things online because you see a lot of the same things, like trivia or bingo, which are great but we don’t always want to do those,” she admitted.

“I think after this year, we’ll primarily want to go back on campus just because we can really serve a lot more students that way” Santone said.

Santone hopes that CCSU students and the community continue to come out to their events to stay connected with their Blue Devil spirit.

For those looking to stay up to date on more upcoming C.A.N. events, you can follow them on Instagram @can_ccsu .