Spring Fling brings Bethlehem residents to Lehigh

When the Lehigh Community Service Organization launched its first Spring Fling 16 years ago, the goal was to provide local families of the South Bethlehem community with a fun experience interacting with members of the university while relishing in the campus setting.

This objective has appeared to be timeless, as hundreds of children and parents from the surrounding Bethlehem area congregated at Lehigh on Saturday for a day of entertainment and activities.

Every year, CSO builds Spring Fling around a different theme, which in the past have included Epcot, under the sea and road trip themes. This year, CSO decided on a carnival theme. Although the rainy weather moved the event from the UC Front Lawn to Grace Hall, families still enjoyed a bouncy house, games, arts and crafts and food.

Boys and girls of all ages toted balloons, prizes and popcorn as they moved from table to table and tent to tent to experience all the activities Spring Fling had to offer.

Carolina Hernandez, the director of CSO, said fraternities, sororities and other student organizations helped raise money in addition to the funds provided by the CSO office to ensure the event would be free of cost.

“It’s imperative that we don’t charge a single dollar for anything when it comes down to our programs,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said Sodexo and Auxiliary Services provided the food and made it possible for families to enjoy lunch at the event.

“We partner with a lot of local schools for this event and getting involved because it’s free, and it’s a safe way for kids to come out and have a good time. It also offers different activities that they don’t normally get to do,” Chloe Hoffnagle, ’20, a member of the CSO, said.

After learning many students attending the local schools in Bethlehem had never set foot on campus, Hernandez wanted to find a way to change that.

“We created Spring Fling as a fun family event to kind of start breaking down the barriers between Lehigh and the South Bethlehem community,” Hernandez said.

CSO advertises the event through flyers sent home with the students of the Bethlehem community schools. Hernandez said at the first ever Spring Fling, the CSO team was ecstatic when 100 people showed up. In recent years, the attendance has averaged about 1,200 attendees.

This is the first year Spring Fling has become a part of Greek Week, a week where fraternities and sororities divide into teams to volunteer at different campus events and engage in friendly competition.

“I think the stars just kind of aligned and with the (Interfraternity Council), Panhellenic and Cultural Greek Council, so this is the first year that we’re kind of doing it all together,” Hernandez said.

Members of several Greek organizations came to help out with the activities, from supervising the bouncy house to making cotton candy.

“It’s a really fun way to hang out with your sisters and hang out with the Bethlehem community,” Kimberly Crosta, ’18, said.

Hernandez said it is important to continue working toward blurring the dividing lines between Lehigh and South Bethlehem by designing programs that encourage friendly interaction with community members.

Allowing students and faculty to connect with local Bethlehem residents embodies the vision CSO had for Spring Fling 16 years ago. Hernandez, Hoffnagle and Crosta all agreed that by opening the doors of the university to those who are essentially our neighbors, Lehigh can build a stronger relationship with Bethlehem and work toward bringing people together.

“Lehigh is in Bethlehem. They’re not two separate environments,” Crosta said. “And if we can create an environment where we welcome the residents of Bethlehem and they welcome us, it will create a better environment to live in in general.”