The Ferris Summer Series

By Amanda Roehl
News Services Marketing and Communications Assistant

It’s that time of year, again, where school is out, the weather is warm, no worries in the world, and you’re in Big Rapids. That’s right, it’s summertime in BR. Every summer, the student workers in the News Services department create a summer video series showcasing activities to do around town. Last year, we filmed so many videos we ran out of places to showcase. But have no fear, Amanda is here. This summer, we will be filming things to do around Big Rapids and challenges to do with your friends and one-hour road trips.

Big Rapids

We filmed a video at Holland Park for Memorial Day. Holland Park is dedicated to our home front heroes, in Big Rapids. We also went to Northend Riverside Park for a puppy party. Our little pooches celebrated one of our own coworker’s dog’s first birthday. Another thing most students do is take a trip to downtown BR. There’s many different shops and restaurants that we want to showcase this summer. One of the cool spots, in Big Rapids, is the new Bulldog Cinema. A few years ago, Big Rapids had a roller rink that closed down. Lucky for us they got new owners and are re-opening. What a perfect way to show the world my terrible rollerblading skills. Last summer, we went tubing, as many students do, but this year we want to try something different. KAYAKING. Let’s hope big bertha isn’t out and flips our kayaks. A few other things we want to do is the FSU ropes course, jones ice cream, an alpaca farm, geocaching, and last but not least, a haunted road in Paris, Michigan.

Challenges

My brilliant coworker, Nachelle, thought it would be a great idea to film challenge videos. Me, being a person that loves a good challenge, said “yes” to the idea. The first video we shot was the spicy noodle challenge. These noodles were HOT, HOT, HOT. The challenge was to finish it in five minutes, or the first person to finish it wins (I won’t spoil anything, but it’s a good one). Now, we have some ideas for challenges, but I don’t want to promise we’re going to be doing all of them. The next one we want to do is the bean boozled challenge, many of you have probably heard of this. We also want to do the whisper challenge but with Ferris words. Many don’t know of this, but nonetheless, it’s still hilarious. Working for a university and controlling the social media, you see a lot of backlash. Our wonderful boss, Sandy Gholston, has been wanting to film mean tweets for years now. Well, it’s finally happening. The last two we want to do are the innuendo bingo challenge and the chubby bunny challenge. We can’t wait to do these challenges, and we want to challenge you to do them with your friends. What a perfect way to spend a rainy day.

One-Hour Trips

If you’re a student here in Big Rapids, then you know there isn’t much to do. Many students often drive an hour to go to Grand Rapids to have some fun. So we thought we would add one-hour trips to the series to give some ideas to fellow Bulldogs on what to do in their free time. A day in Ludington, with all the lighthouses, is a location that’s familiar to some fellow Bulldogs, but not all. Some of the trips, to Grand Rapids, could include a day at the Whitecaps, John Ball Zoo, Art Prize, Frederik Meijer Gardens and the Gerald R. Ford Museum. There’s a few that are a little more than an hour away but are the ones I’m most excited for. We plan on going to Michigan’s Adventure, because what’s a summer without a rollercoaster? We also want to visit the Traverse City Cherry Festival, because you aren’t a true Michigander if you’ve never been. The last one is Sleeping Bear Dunes. Not only is this place breathtaking and absolutely fun on the dune buggies, but there’s also a Michigan folktale surrounding this landmark.

Make sure you follow us along on our journey. We hope you’re enjoying your summer Bulldogs because we sure are.


Amanda Roehl is a student writer for News Services and Social Media in University Advancement and Marketing.