Idaho State hosting 9th annual Celebrate ISU event Wednesday

Idaho State University is holding its Celebrate ISU event for the 9th time Wednesday.

Each year, the event welcomes the community onto campus in an effort to highlight the university, its students and programs.

Over 100 booths will be set up in the Pond Student Union building and, cliche as it sounds, university events coordinator Allyson Johnson said there will be “something for everybody.”

“You can come, you can get a chair massage, you can plant a seedling, you can play with robots,” Johnson said. “You can come and get a great feel for what we have to offer here at ISU.”

The event was first organized with the goal of increasing Bengal pride and Bengal spirit in the community.

“I really think that that has happened,” Johnson said. “You think back, like nine or ten years ago, driving around town you didn’t necessarily see ISU signs in every store, you certainly didn’t see Bengal Wednesday happening and now you do.”

Among the many positive impacts of the event, Johnson believes that it has helped shed light on some of the things the university has going on.

“I hear repeatedly, that they say that I learned something new that I never knew before,” she explained. “I had no idea that you had this program or I had no idea that you were doing this type of research.”

This year, the event is highlighting the university’s STEM programs and Professor Steve Shropshire’s progressive STEM activity is expected to draw some excitement.

As per usual, T-shirts from ISU Credit Union are expected to be very popular.

“They’ve got about 800 on hand,” Johnson said. “Our event starts at 4 p.m. and you guarantee on there being a line right there at about 3:40 p.m., people really love those T-shirts.”

The event will also feature a potato bar from Driscoll farms and a Nintendo Switch giveaway organized by Idaho Central Credit Union.

The approach of the event has changed over the past few years, as organizers have begun to target kids in the family-based Pocatello and ISU communities.

“When we made that change to kind of focus more on young children instead of high school students or recruiting, that’s when we really saw a spike in our attendance.”

Johnson said she expects anywhere from 2,500-3,000 people to be in attendance tonight, weather permitting.

“Whether it’s your first time here or you are a long time ISU supporter, I think you can always learn something new,” Johnson explained.

While she wouldn’t reveal what the secret was, Johnson said to keep your eyes open in the ballroom around 5:15 p.m.

“You might see a surprise or two. That’d be a fun time to be here.”