Barry McNamara  |  Published September 06, 2023

Family Weekend, Sept. 8-10

Annual event to feature carnival atmosphere – including kettle corn – as well as home athletic events, a hypnotist and a concert.

MONMOUTH, Ill. – With Labor Day in the rearview of the September calendar, fall is in the air. Monmouth College is ready to embrace the season with football, marching musicians and, yes, kettle corn as it welcomes scores of parents, grandparents and siblings to campus for its annual Family Weekend, Sept. 8-10.

TOGETHER AGAIN: Family Weekend offers a chance for parents, grandparents, siblings and other rela... TOGETHER AGAIN: Family Weekend offers a chance for parents, grandparents, siblings and other relatives to reconnect with their loved one studying at Monmouth College.“I am so thrilled to be working on my first Family Weekend with Monmouth College and to meet some of the families that have supported the amazing students I get to work with,” said Meredith McGary, the College’s new assistant director of campus events. “We already have over 100 families registered, and many students have already told me they are excited for the World’s Best Kettle Corn – in Fighting Scots Red, nonetheless – to make its return to campus.”

The family-centric events will begin Friday evening when hypnotist Dan Lornitis performs at 7 p.m. in Dahl Chapel and Auditorium.

Inflatables, games and other activities will be available from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday in The Quad behind Stockdale Center, which will also be the site of an all-campus cookout featuring a variety of cookout and carnival-type foods.

The annual Family Weekend Concert, featuring the Chorale and the Wind Ensemble, will be held at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Kasch Performance Hall of Dahl Chapel, and the concert will be preceded by a pre-performance dessert served outside of Dahl, beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Each day of the weekend will feature Fighting Scots home athletics action, starting Friday when the men’s and women’s tennis teams host St. Ambrose University at 3 p.m. On Saturday, the football team will play its home opener, kicking off its slate of Midwest Conference games against the University of Chicago at 1 p.m. The Fighting Scots Marching Band and the Monmouth College Pipe Band will be part of the event’s pageantry. The JV football team will then take the field Sunday, meeting Illinois Wesleyan University at 2 p.m.

As will be the case all season, prior to Saturday’s home football game, a member of Monmouth’s faculty will be featured in the Great Lecture Series. To start the 2023 slate of lectures, political science professor Jessica Vivian will speak on “Liberty in America” at 11 a.m. in Hewes Library. The event is free and open to the public, and light refreshments will be served.

“These talks are designed to celebrate the great teaching we have at Monmouth College,” said Vivian’s department colleague Andre Audette, who coordinates the series. “Come experience what it might be like to take a course in some different disciplines as we warm up to cheer on the Fighting Scots football team that afternoon.”

Earlier on Saturday, the College will host an event for families who have sent not only a current student to Monmouth, but at least one other close relative. The invitation-only 20th Annual Legacy Brunch will be held at 10 a.m. in Mellinger Commons in the Center for Science and Business.

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