For the ninth year, younger siblings and relatives of Simpson College students will get a chance to hang out with their older brothers and sisters at the annual Little Sibs Weekend, April 4-6.

The event, sponsored by Residence Life, is meant to bring together college students and their younger siblings who they may not have seen for a while. This year’s theme is “Simpson Games 2008.”

“They assign different area coordinators to lead it,” junior Maggie Anderson, a student hall coordinator who has helped plan this year’s event, said. “We try to broaden the games to appeal to all.”

Luke Behaunek, area coordinator for Buxton, Picken, Worth and the theme houses, was put in charge of planning this year’s weekend.

“Planning begins at the beginning of this semester with deciding the initial theme and approximating the budget for the event,” Behaunek said.

To keep an event like Little Sibs Weekend from being the same every year, the planners work hard on coming up with a different theme from the previous year.

“The theme changes and new activities are typically brought in by the students working with the event,” Behaunek said. “But the same general ideas carry on from year to year.”

Sophomore Amanda Yanchury was involved in planning last year’s event.

“There was a carnival with sno-cones and popcorn and games with prizes, open swim and gym time, a movie showing in Camp Lounge and Sunday brunch,” Yanchury said.

Yanchury had many different responsibilities.

“I was appointed specific tasks like renting mini-golf from the Intramurals Department [and] talking to Blair Stairs at Pfeiffer to make sure brunch was a go,” Yanchury said. “I also attended weekly meetings to make sure everything was going smoothly. At the event, I volunteered during carnival time.”

This year, Behaunek said the staff wanted to make the event fun for younger siblings of all ages.

“The suggested age range for the event is K-through-6 and we’re really trying to provide activities for the whole range and older in case we have older students there,” Behaunek said.

The decision to accommodate older siblings, according to Anderson, was because of a trend that was noticed at last year’s weekend.

“We looked at events last year and we noticed there were a lot of older kids,” Anderson said. “We decided to have more events for them.”

Behaunek said another addition to this year’s activities is a game show intended for participation by all family members.

“We’re also planning on holding a Family Feud event based off of the TV show with responses being from Simpson students,” Behaunek said.

All of the planners think the idea of an event for siblings is one that Simpson should continue to support.

“I think it’s a fun event that brings the campus together,” Behaunek said. “It’s a unique weekend that Simpson has and Residence Life is proud to host it.”

Anderson feels the weekend is advantageous to the siblings.

“The students get to have their family come and there’s bonding time,” Anderson said. “I think it’s really great that we have a weekend where students can show them their world.”

Yanchury agreed with Anderson, and believed the weekend has an added bonus for the college.

“I think it is a good event to have because I think the kids have a lot of fun,” Yanchury said. “Plus we can recruit them early.”

Behaunek also said that, although the official deadline has already passed, students can still sign up their families to participate in the event.

“The deadline was March 19, but if you missed that and you’d really like to participate, let me know and we’ll figure it out.”