Theta Chi, Phi Mu and Delta Tau Delta partnered together dressing as characters from “Peter Pan.”
The group won first place in every category throughout the night, including best drink, best booth and best overall.
 

The Biology Undergraduate Society dressed as  ninja turtles. The organization took home
third place overall. 
 

Guest speaker Jake Byckowski (above, right) gets students involved throughout his presentation promoting
alcohol awareness.
 

Pizza, music, free drinks and a guest speaker all joined forces to influence students to make good choices when it comes to consuming alcohol. 

On September 23 at 7:00 p.m., guest speaker Jake Byczkowski kicked off the start of Mocktails. Byczkowski was humored by the costume theme and driven to help show college students how to be smart when drinking.

“I felt like there needed to be something that got through to somebody like me and hopefully help people avoid the same experiences I had,” said Byckowski. “The crowd was great. Everyone was involved and super excited. The costumes were hilarious.”

Senior kinesiology major Jeremiah Eisenhardt enjoyed the outcome of the event and Byckowski’s presentation. As well as Byckowski, students attending the event also had a memorable Mocktail’s experience. 

“I love it,” said Eisenhardt. “Everyone is all dressed up more than usual. Everyone has their own music. The drinks are good. The speaker was better than most years. It’s been a good Mocktails.”

President of Sigma Tau Gamma fraternity Adam Abraham was excited by the turn out this year. 

“This is my fourth year,” said Abraham. “I am liking it. It seems like there are more people here than the previous years. I’m glad that the school has something that shows that we can have fun without alcohol because I feel like that is really important to us.”

Freshman biology major and sorority member Jill Munchausen of Alpha Omicron Pi agreed that the positive energy at Mocktails was great.

“The energy is pretty good; it’s all positive,” said Munchausen. “This is all to support and promote alcohol awareness. I feel like this is a very positive way to influence people.”

The winners for best drink, booth and best overall were Theta Chi, Phi Mu and Delta Tau Delta. Junior kinesiology major Skylar Erickson of Phi Mu was excited about the win of all three categories.

 “Everyone was really pumped up,” said Erickson. “We put a lot of work into it. We were really proud of the efforts that came out of it and the product. We were a little nervous for sure. We were scrambling, making our last minute adjustments.”

Theta Chi, Phi Mu and Delta Tau Delta’s theme was Captain Hook. The students in their group were dressed in pirate costumes as well as characters from “Peter Pan.” Their drink corresponded to the movie.

“Our drink was Peter Pan Punch,” said Erickson. “It was kind of like a Caribbean drink because our theme was Captain Hook. We tried to make the drink look like Peter Pan’s hat, so it looked like the defeat of Peter Pan.”

Junior English language arts major Eddie Cooper of Theta Chi felt accomplished of his team’s win despite the unusualness of working with another fraternity as well as their partnered sorority. 

“It was wild,” said Cooper. “Even if we wouldn’t have won anything, we gave it our best and we all worked together. Three different sororities and fraternities all came together and we worked hard on it. It was really great coming together with another sorority and fraternity which is unusual.”

Although senior communication major and Alpha Omicron Pi member Kathryn Kennedy did not win first place, she was still excited to win second.

“We’re excited we got second place,” said Kennedy. “I know we all put a lot of work into it, so it’s nice to see us place.”

The Biology Undergraduate Society followed, taking third place overall. Although not everyone placed at Mocktails, most came out with great attitudes and enthusiasm. Senior history and political science major Brooke Blackwell from Hall Council was proud of her organization’s booth and how much support they received.

“Our drink was the red skull,” said Blackwell. “We didn’t win, but I thought we did a really good job with our booth. We had a lot of our residents show up that are members of Hall Council to support the event and our booth. I thought that it was really positive.”