SRWC rewards 400,000th visitor with clothes, gear

Kyle Volle may not have gotten what he was looking for when he entered the Student Recreation and Wellness Center right before Spring Break, but he did receive a decent compensation.Volle, a physics and engineering major, came to the rec center for an intramural indoor soccer game, resulting in a 6-0 loss. But more importantly, Volle received an assortment of prizes for being guest number 400,000 to walk through the SRWC doors.”I got a sweatshirt, a hat, T-shirt and tote bag,” said Volle.Coming for a Thursday night game, Volle was in a rush to get to the basketball courts because he arrived just minutes before his team would have been forced to forfeit.”I was already running to get in,” said Volle. “I knew we would be close to not having enough people, and they were handing me all the stuff.”Apparently, the running paid off.On a busy night for intramurals, Volle came in at just the right time to be the winner.”There wasn’t any real close call this time,” said Bluml. “He didn’t cut in front of anyone or something like that.”The SRWC has made it a tradition to deck out visitors in gear every time they reach a milestone in attendance.On one occasion, SRWC director Joel Bluml said two males were visitors No. 299,998 and 299,999. Had they held the door for the female right behind them, they would have received the prizes for being the milestone guests.Since the SRWC opened in 2006, the facility has had no problem attracting thousands of students.”October of next year will be our five-year anniversary,” said Bluml. “We’d expect to be at about 450,000 by then.”Bluml said he hopes to continue giving out the prizes as a way of rewarding continued participation and keeping track of attendance.”I encourage people to keep coming in,” said Bluml. “Our numbers have been up again this year, so you never know. You could be number 500,000.”