College Station will seem crowded this weekend as thousands of students’ parents pour into town for Parents’ Weekend 2006.
“The purpose is to have a weekend where families can come and feel the appreciation of their students,” Sharra Durham said.
Durham, the faculty adviser for the Parents’ Weekend Committee, said Parents’ Weekend annually fills the Brazos Valley’s hotels to capacity.
“We don’t really have a good sense for the number of parents coming because we don’t have a formal registration,” she said. “But I have gotten e-mails from parents who are staying in Huntsville because they couldn’t get a hotel room closer. So I would say that it’s a pretty large number.”
Shannon Overby, senior director for the Bryan-College Station Convention and Visitors Bureau, said Parents’ Weekend is one of the biggest weekends of the year for visitors in College Station.
“We currently have 3,205 hotel rooms in Bryan-College Station,” Overby said. “There are four hotels that still have rooms because of cancellations, but we have taken probably 25 or 30 calls today from parents.”
Overby predicted that around 85 percent of the full hotel rooms are being used by visiting parents.
Parents’ Weekend Committee will kick off with Midnight Yell Practice, the first for newly elected yell leaders Chris Buckner, Eric Reed and James Mulvey.
On Saturday, events include the Bevo Burn Barbeque on the Simpson Drill Field at 11 a.m., the Maroon and White Football Game at 2 p.m. at Kyle Field and The Singing Cadets concert at 7:30 p.m.
The Parents’ Weekend activities end with the All-University Awards Ceremony at 9:30 a.m. Sunday.
“A lot of us wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the values and morals that our parents gave us and we just want to show them our thanks in return,” said Taylor Covey, director of Parents’ Weekend.
Other Parents’ Weekend events include the MSC Variety Show and open houses at A&M President Robert M. Gates’ and Vice President for Student Affairs Dean Bresciani’s on-campus residences.