Beach
Patrol enhances pride
By Brian Brannon
On-line Forty-Niner
School
spirit pays dividends at Cal State Long
Beach through the Beach Pride program. Students
who enroll in the Beach Patrol program earn
prizes for attending athletic events.
Awards include free tuition, DVD players,
travel bags, and beach chairs. Upon signing
up for the program, students receive a free
T-shirt.
From there, the gifts just keep on coming
as students accumulate more points by swiping
their student I.D. cards at CSULB athletic
events.
“It’s completely free and they can even
sign up at home just through the Web or
they can come into the office and sign up,”
said CSULB Activities Coordinator Chance
Decker.
Beach Pride Web Master Svavar O. Svavarsson
said many of the top student point holders
have yet to officially enroll in the program,
which means they are missing out on their
share of the booty.
“Only 415 of the 3,892 people that have
points so far have signed up,” Svavarsson
stated.
Another program designed to increase school
spirit is Beach Pride Day, which is held
every Tuesday. On certain Tuesdays, Beach
Pride representatives wait at the bottom
of the escalator for students wearing CSULB
gear.
Those sporting Beach regalia receive prizes
ranging from free pizza at Round Table to
tickets to the ESPN Zone, to pom-poms and
foam fingers.
“It’s positive reinforcement for people
we see showing school spirit,” Decker said.
The goal of the program is simple, he said:
“Instead of people walking around wearing
UCLA or UCI shirts, it’s a lot better seeing
them wearing Long Beach State gear.”
Office assistant Ria Superville helps students
register for the program at the Beach Pride
Center in the Student Union. She also hands
out the free Beach Patrol T-shirts they
receive upon enrollment.
Superville said the program has been growing
in popularity as students see others wearing
the shirts on campus and ask where they
came from.
Points are collected at every athletic event,
and the results are tallied up at the end
of the year.
“There’s no cut off date, just until the
shirts run out,” she said. |
