Family Fun at Middletown Day Sept. 26

For the third year in a row, Wesleyan will welcome members of the community and Wesleyan faculty, staff, students, alumni and families to Middletown Day—a day of family fun and athletic events on campus. The theme of this year’s event, taking place Sept. 26, is “Salute to Service, Honoring Our Veterans.”

“We are excited to once again welcome Middletown families to campus, and honored to partner in saluting veterans from campus and the community,” said Cathy Lechowicz, director of the Center for Community Partnerships. “It will be a celebratory day that highlights the assets of our campus and the community.”

The event will be centered on Andrus Field. Family activities will run from 11 a.m.­–2:30 p.m. and will include a bounce house, a face painter, a balloon artist, live music and free popcorn. Other food will be on sale. There also will be a Resource Fair with informational booths from campus and community organizations, located in the Huss Courtyard behind Usdan University Center. In case of rain, most activities will move indoors to the Usdan University Center.

Beginning at 12:30 p.m., Wesleyan Football will play Middlebury College on Andrus Field. The Middletown Police Bagpipe Association will lead veterans in attendance onto the field for recognition. The halftime show will feature a performance by the Middletown High School Marching Band.

Other athletic contests taking place that day include Women’s Soccer vs. Bates at 11 a.m. on Jackson Field; Women’s Field Hockey vs. Bates at 11 a.m. on Smith Field; Women’s Volleyball vs. U.S. Coast Guard Academy at noon in the Freeman Athletic Center’s Silloway Gymnasium; and Men’s Soccer vs. Bates at 2:30 p.m. on Jackson Field.

Wesleyan will host veterans from the greater Middletown community, as well as veterans from our staff, faculty, student body and alumni.

“Wesleyan has a long tradition of service to the nation, including more than 80 Wesleyans who made the ultimate sacrifice during World War II,” said Antonio Farias, vice president for equity and inclusion/ Title IX officer. “When the nation has called, Wesleyans have served, and so we honor those among us who heeded the call, and we pay our deepest respects to those who never returned.”

In addition, the Combat Paper Project will be demonstrating the traditional craft of handmade paper, which uses plant-based clothing as the source material to be rendered into a pulp and finally into sheets of paper. This practice goes back many centuries and enables veterans to interpret and commemorate aspects of military service by transforming the uniforms from those experiences into paper.

See photos from past Middletown Day events here and here.

For more information, please call (860) 685-2881, and see Middletown Day poster below.