DES MOINES, Iowa — The 2023 Drake Relays are almost here, and students kicked off the festivities with their annual street painting event.
Street painting is an annual tradition in which student organizations are invited to submit a design for a square along the iconic Painted Street.
If selected, members of student organizations gather to paint the street with their design. The art lasts all year, until the next Relays rolls around.
While street painting is a two-day event this year, the planning process lasts much longer.
"We pick the theme and stuff at the very beginning of the year," said Chloe Lepak, public relations co-chair of the Drake Student Activities Board. "So, that starts in like September/October. And we have two Relays chairs that work really hard on it."
This year's theme for all student-led Relays activities is "Making Waves".
"We chose that theme because we wanted to encourage people to make a difference and make a change for the better," said Maria Husting, SAB relays co-chair. "And so we chose groups that were representing that, not only in their design, but what they do on a daily basis at Drake."
Different organizations put their own spin on the theme.
"We kind of went with, like, a sort of like wave design," said Abby Luther, a member of psychology organization Psi Chi. "And then wanted to kind of include a little bit of psychology in there. So we made a little pun/slogan type thing that says 'Surfing Brainwaves.'"
Husting said that street painting allows SAB to spotlight smaller organizations on campus that might be overlooked.
"Some of the really cool things about the squares is we have a lot of organizations that have previously never had a square before--half the squares this year, which is a really cool opportunity," she said.
The event is also a way for students to band together and show their Drake pride.
"Something like this is so beautiful because we all come together, like for a cool cause to make our campus look really beautiful, and get to represent our organizations," Lepak said.
"Art just brings people together in a way," added Kenyon Proby, a member of Alpha Phi Omega. "Especially here at Relays, it's just nice to have that community.