Looking to get off campus? Feeling bored with your average Fairfield weekends? Well, look no further! Fairfield’s Outdoors Club offers students a change of scenery and the opportunity to appreciate nature during our busy college lives.
From hikes, to beach sunrises and outdoor painting events, this club really has it all. Fairfield students Lara Primakov ‘25 and Sam Healey ‘25 are avid outdoor enthusiasts and fittingly are the President and Vice President of the club, respectively.
“The Outdoors Club is all about having a great time in the great outdoors,” Healey says, “we’re looking forward to a year of fun new adventures.”
President Primakov shares that her goal for Outdoors Club is to “give anyone a space to do things they don’t normally get to do, or give themselves the time to do. I don’t make time to appreciate nature as often as I should, and I think a lot of people feel the same way.”
I can definitely agree with this. The non-stop lifestyle of college can get overwhelming, and it’s hard to make time to appreciate the beautiful world around us. Thankfully, the Outdoors Club has plenty of opportunities to get your fix of Mother Nature’s creations!
“We’ve hosted three events so far this year: a hike at Devil’s Den Nature Preserve, a sunrise social at Penfield Beach and our first-ever lawn painting event,” Healey says.
Primakov notes that the sunrise social was “a very early wake-up, but the view of the sunrise from the beach is always worth it.” She also comments on what a success their first lawn-painting event was, which was hosted on Barnyard Lawn, saying how “one of our attendees said that he was having so much fun and forgot how much he liked painting because he hadn’t done it since middle school. That’s gonna stick with me—it made me really happy to hear.” Combining the outdoors with a creative, de-stress event like painting seems like the perfect way to spend an afternoon!
In addition to these awesome events, Primakov and Healey have a lot of exciting ideas in the works for the club’s future.
“We’ve been talking about cliff or bridge jumping for a while—it’s been hard finding safe places near us but we recently learned about a couple of places that might be promising,” Primakov says.
Healey adds that “our members can expect at least a couple of hikes and sunrises every month, plus some exciting new events like pumpkin picking, bridge jumping and maybe even a trip to the New York Botanical Gardens.”
Primakov also teased a potential paintball trip, commenting that she is “super into that idea. I’ve never done paintball but I’ve always wanted to, so finally getting the chance to do it with our club would be sick.” Make sure you are all keeping an eye out for these exciting upcoming events, they sound like something you wouldn’t want to miss!
Clearly, the Outdoors Club has a lot of fun and exciting things in store for this school year. If any students are interested in joining the club, it’s not too late! Healey emphasizes that “everything we do is fun, casual and super low commitment; plus it’s a great way to meet people, get off campus and explore the local area.”
Primakov adds that any students who are “looking for something different to do on the weekends or on a weekday afternoon when you need to take a break from schoolwork, you should totally check out our club and see what we’re up to.”
She jokes that “our events sometimes feel like it’s just a bunch of friends hanging out, having random adventures outside, and that’s the kind of environment I want everyone to feel welcome to join.” This definitely sounds like an awesome way to spend some free time and get a change of scenery!
Healey wants to remind students that “for more information about who we are and what we’re up to, check us out on Life@Fairfield, we’d love to see you on our next adventure!”
I don’t know about you, but I’ll be keeping an eye out for the next beach sunrise or the New York Botanical Gardens trip. See you there!
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