At 9:30 a.m. last Friday, Alpha Phi Omega opened the doors of the Dow Center to roughly 100 sixth-graders from Washington Gardner Middle School.

APO, the coed service fraternity on campus, hosted its second annual Field Day for the public school students.

"It’s an end-of-the-year celebration for the collaboration between the community and college," said Trisha Hughes, Ottawa Lake junior and president of APO. "(The field day) is very rewarding for (the sixth-graders) and the college students."

Throughout the year the service fraternity members spend time at the middle school, tutoring the students. According to Hughes, when the college students have flexible schedules, they also spend time mentoring them. Hughes sometimes brings sixth-graders to campus.

The Field Day consisted of five stations at the Dow. There was a basketball station where volunteers from Albion College’s basketball teams ran drills and conducted entertaining exercises. Dodgeball games were also held in the field house.

The sixth-graders were also given 45 minutes in the pool as well as time outside to participate in track and field events.

The students were broken into six groups of roughly 17 students. Two college volunteers helped guide the sixth-graders through each station while other volunteers stayed at each station to run the games. The students were also provided lunch donated by Hungry Howie’s.

"(My favorite events are) swimming and track," said sixth-grader Katherine Ratcliff. "It’s fun playing with the college kids. They make everything better."

Roughly 40 college volunteers were at the Dow each hour.

"I love it," said Stephanie Davie, Adrian senior and student volunteer. "(The Field Day) gives the kids time to get out and do things they normally couldn’t do."