Jesse Waters, director of Bowers Writers House at Elizabethtown College, was looking for a way to make the first day of the school week more fun. He created Mellow Monday, a three-hour-long block of time in which students and employees can head over to Bowers, at 840 College Hill Lane, for hot chocolate, board games and conversation. He said the time is all about recharging from the weekend, to prepare for the week ahead.
“I wanted people to have the opportunity to do something over at Bowers that was casual, social and fun,” said Waters, also a lecturer in English at the College. Mellow Mondays will about be caffeine, sugar, snacks, hanging out and relaxing.
I wanted people to have the opportunity to do something over at Bowers that was casual, social and fun…”
He wanted to host something fun and not event-oriented, Waters said. So Mellow Monday has no theme. “In this type of situation whoever comes can just build whatever identity for whatever they want to do,” he said.
Waters introduced the idea of Monday afternoon downtime this semester as a way to generate interest and see how popular an open weekly event might be. If people enjoy being over at Bowers just to socialize, Waters said, then, for the 2015-2016 academic year, he will work on restructuring Bowers’ hours so people can have more of an opportunity to visit or socialize there.
A defining feature of Mellow Mondays, open to all campus community members, is the opportunity for quiet time. The events will be primarily for socializing, but Bowers has a four-seasons room, an enclosed sunroom connected to the rest of the house, that acts as a quiet space for meditation or the opportunity to read a book. “It’s fully lit with beautiful windows, and it gets a lot of great sun, so it’s a great place to just come and decompress,” Waters said.
“If you haven’t been out to the Bowers Writers House yet, grab a friend and come on out on Monday afternoons,” he added. “It’s ‘of the campus but not on the campus,’ and it’s a cool little place to hang out.”
Mellow Mondays, from 1 to 4 p.m. every Monday from March 9 until April 27, are free. For more information, contact Jesse Waters at watersj@etown.edu, writershouse@etown.edu or 717-689-3945.