Breslin Center was transformed from a sports arena to an indoor fairground Saturday afternoon. Hundreds of families attended Breslin Takeover II, an event hosted by Student Parents on a Mission, or SPOM, and the MSU Family Resource Center. For the parents, a resource fair of parenting support organizations was held in the Breslin concourse. For the kids, the stadium floor was home to a carnival, complete with a petting zoo, three bounce houses, clowns making balloon animals and much more.
Becky Brewer, a career consultant with MSU Career Services Network, attended the carnival with her young daughter Bella.
“It’s great,” Brewer said. “She’s pretty young, but she likes to look at stuff and see a lot of other kids. She got to pet a goat!”
Brewer recognized the difficulties facing student-parents at MSU.
“Being a non-traditional student is a hard thing,” Brewer said. “It is good to see someone giving them support.”
The carnival was supported by Lansing-area educational centers and businesses. Attendees also could give a small donation to SPOM at the door.
Most of the carnival games were run by student volunteers.
Dietetics senior Kimberly Gilmore volunteered with her sorority, Sigma Lambda Gamma.
“We ran the ring toss, ball toss and karaoke,” Gilmore said. “We are always looking for volunteer opportunities, more than happy to help.”
SPOM and the Family Resource Center organized the first Breslin Takeover event last year. This year, they introduced the resource fair in conjunction with the carnival.
“The resource fair was the greatest idea we have ever had,” said Jasmine Brown-Moreland, co-chair of SPOM. “Last year, (the carnival) was super crowded.”
Brown-Moreland, a political theory and constitutional democracy and social relations and policy senior, helped run the event while keeping an eye on her 2-year-old daughter Kennedy.
“She’s extra busy,” Brown-Moreland said as she left to her booth to rein in Kennedy.
Breslin Takeover II is part SPOM’s outreach and charity programs, which have been expanding in recent years, she said. SPOM primarily functions as a peer support network for parents on campus.
“The Family Resource Center and Student Parents on a Mission were both born in 1994,” said Family Resource Center Coordinator Lori Strom. “A single mom came to MSU with her kid and said, ‘There’s got to be other people here like me.’ We’ve been keeping it going ever since.”
Strom said most don’t realize how expensive childcare can be. Childcare programs can cost up to $13,000 a year, she said. SPOM and the Family Resource Center help student-parents navigate these costs with peer support and scholarships.
“We have had a lot of great success stories,” Strom said, including one SPOM member who had her child at age 15, then went on to graduate MSU and now works at IBM.
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