Thank You for Another Great Festival de Cascarones

Members of the A&M-SA Community:

We had another great Festival de Cascarones event on Sunday, thanks to the careful planning, hard work and boundless energy of so many people. The first set of photos is available now on our Flickr page, with more being added soon.

While those who contributed to this event are too numerous to name in this email, I would like to give special thanks to Kathleen Curp and Brandon Oliver for once again leading the charge. They were supported by the event's committee chairs, myriad volunteers, numerous student organizations and our dedicated SSC partners.

I would also like to extend my appreciation to our event sponsors, including H-E-B (our presenting sponsor), Coors Light, City Base Entertainment, Mike's Hard Lemonade, Alterman, SpawGlass, Wells Fargo, My Education Solutions, Whataburger and American Campus Communities. 

We kicked off the day at 11 a.m. with two special events for admitted students (and family members) and alumni, hosted by the offices of Student Affairs and Alumni Affairs. Then, more than 7,000 attendees enjoyed seven hours of family-friendly (and pet-friendly) activities, which included the following highlights.

• Festival-goers were treated to an eclectic mix of great live music by Secondhand Serenade, Blue Water Highway, Bidi Bidi Banda and Like a Sparrow (which features student Andrew Martinez and alumnus Moses Gaitan).
• Grupo Folkorico and Texas A&M International University's Mariachi Internacional captured the imagination of the crowd with their colorful cultural performances.
• In the Golden Egg Drawing, Desmond Porter (Class of 2021, Business Communications) won the $2,500 voucher, David Allen (Class of 2020, Accounting) won the $1,500 voucher and Analisa Gonzalez (Class of 2020, Special Education Generalist EC-6th) won the Apple iPad. (This drawing is sponsored by the Texas A&M University-San Antonio Foundation.)
• When emcee Brandon Oliver gave the signal around 5:30 p.m., thousands of people literally "cracked up" during the beloved cascarones smash, which received greatKENS 5 coverage. 
• And for the first time ever, an interpreter supplied by Disability Support Services was on stage during all of the performances and announcements, reinforcing our University's commitment to diversity, inclusion and equity.

Festival de Cascarones is truly a special event where the results far exceed the sum of the inputs. It epitomizes A&M-SA's core value of collaboration and exemplifies our commitment to serving the San Antonio community. I am awed by the amount of work and creativity that goes into the event, and am deeply grateful for the level of commitment our campus community demonstrated once again. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Cynthia Teniente-Matson
President