Lakeside Amusement Park
Blake Sanz

The WPA conference, co-hosted by the University Writing Program, concluded late on Saturday, July 12 at Lakeside Amusement Park, where participants and attendees gathered for a night of roller coasters and revelry.

The park, which was celebrating its hundredth anniversary, features many historic attractions including two steam-engine trains that originally debuted at the St. Louis Worlds Fair in 1904. With an historic, hundred-year-old carousel, thrill rides, attractions featuring views of the Rocky Mountains, and a wooden roller coaster called the Cyclone that has been listed by American Coaster Enthusiasts as a top-ten coaster in the country, the park made for a fun, casual atmosphere. It provided the chance for those unfamiliar with the city to experience a side of Denver culture apart from LoDo and downtown, where the bulk of conference activities occurred. As Eliana Schonberg, Director of the Writing Center who helped put on the event, explained, The WPA has traditionally tried to connect its social outing to the place in which the conference is held, and we thought that, since Lakeside is a place which has a lot of history and meaning with the local community, it would serve us well.

The Writing Program also sponsored a barbeque beneath the pavilions at Lakeside, where conference-goers enjoyed burgers, hot dogs, salad, and sodas and got the chance to mingle casually, providing an outdoor complement to the conferences series of events at the Grand Hyatt hotel. Buses shuttled conference guests to and from the park, allowing those staying downtown and those not familiar with the city the chance to enjoy the night.

While the conference itself gave attendees the chance to cordially ask questions and politely discuss ways to imagine writing program administration and/as learning, this final social event at Lakeside Amusement Park provided them a chance to scream and shout on their final night in the Queen City.

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