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University of Houston-Campus Recreation & Wellness Center on Aug. 16, 2024 in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez\/The Cougar<\/p>\n
UH held its fall 2026 Rec Fest at the Recreation & Wellness Center on Aug. 31.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Rec Fest is an event hosted by the University\u2019s Campus Recreation team and aims to show the perks of rec-life for all UH students, on and off campus.<\/p>\n
\u201cRec Fest is basically showcasing the department of Campus Recreation,\u201d said Assistant Director of Marketing Communications Vykie Avila. \u201cWe have services, facilities and programs and we want to showcase some of those programs that we offer throughout each semester to the students.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
During Rec Fest, Campus Recreation hosts games, challenges and a sports organization fair for all students to enjoy. The staff also prepares prizes and merchandise for those that attend and participate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have food, t-shirts, raffles, a human claw machine, a robo surfer, logrolling and lots of different fun things for students to engage with,\u201d said Interim Director of Campus Recreation Rachel O\u2019Mara.<\/p>\n
In order to secure games and prizes, Campus Recreation has to start their side of Rec Fest eight to 12 months in advance. The team tries to engage more students every year and do something different each year to make the event more fun, Avila said. <\/p>\n
\u201cI want everybody to come in,\u201d Avila said. \u201cI feel like sometimes the students don\u2019t understand that when they come here and they use this as a stress-free environment, they\u2019re learning how to stay healthy and have a better lifestyle.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
During the event, the Recreation Center was filled with a large number of people attending specifically for the Rec Fest and its activities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is way more active than I would ever think it would be,\u201d said pre-business freshman Mark Wiley. \u201cI go to the gym and I see these people working out, but I\u2019ve never seen these many people show up at once. I see people playing basketball, everyone doing other sports, but I\u2019ve never seen this amount of people so interested in sports.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wiley believes that more people should be interested in sports as it acts as a good pastime and helps stay healthy mentally, stay in a shape and keeps the heart going.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event cannot be a success without the help from everybody involved in Campus Recreation, Avila said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it takes all of us, because I feel like two people are better than one person, seven people are better than one person,\u201d Avila said. \u201cIt\u2019s a collaboration between all the different program areas that we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rec Fest is not the only event that Campus Recreation holds, as they are actively hosting more events throughout the semester, including a field day at Gertner Field, a 9\/11 step challenge and a variety of outdoor experiences.<\/p>\n
Even though it just took place, Avila and Campus Recreation are already planning the next Rec Fest.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter this, we\u2019ll start meeting again,\u201d Avila said. \u201cWe have a committee, set with all the different program areas, there\u2019s somebody representing somebody from each program area that we have. Then we\u2019ll start planning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Rec Fest gave students a warm welcome and hope to continue making a difference in the lives of those who attend UH.<\/p>\n
\u201cI became the Assistant Director of Marketing once we opened up this building, and I feel like it\u2019s so much fun to see what students get out of Campus Recreation,\u201d Avila said. \u201cThen for them to come back and say \u2018I love this opportunity, it gave me this\u2019. That sense of belonging, that camaraderie with their peers, it\u2019s neat to watch.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"University of Houston-Campus Recreation & Wellness Center on Aug. 16, 2024 in Houston, Texas. | Raphael Fernandez\/The Cougar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430478,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57,2125,149461,149462,16346],"class_list":["post-430477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-mental-health","tag-physical-health","tag-rec-fest","tag-recreation-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430477\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}