MOON TOWNSHIP — The Robert Morris University community came together Sunday for a day-long event to celebrate the most important aspect of the community: the students.

RMU Greek Life, Student Life, RMU Band and Colonial Theatre all came together on the Nicholson Front Lawn Sunday to put on the Best of RMU. The event brought together some of the greatest parts of campus as it has been tough to host certain events throughout the school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The highly anticipated event kicked off at noon with John Tucci’s rendition of “God Bless America” and “The Star-Spangled Banner.” This was followed by the first event of the day, the Greek Week Finale.

The Greek Week Finale started off with chariot races between the fraternities and sororities of RMU. Two members from each fraternity and sorority was given the task to race as fast as they could with their chariot to the finish line. Fellow brothers and sisters cheered on their chapters as they competed in the races. The two winners of the race were Delta Zeta and Phi Delta Theta.

The races were followed by a pre-recorded lip dub competition that each of the fraternities and sororities were involved in. Here, they were able to show off their lip-syncing skills to artists like ABBA, Bruno Mars, Beach Boys and Katy Perry. The two winners of the lip dub challenge were Delta Phi Epsilon and Phi Mu Delta.

Next, the Greek Week Finale concluded with the Greek Week champions being crowned. The two winners were the sisters of Delta Zeta and the brothers of Phi Mu Delta.

After a short break, the events of the day continued with the Renaissance Award ceremony, which started shortly after 3 p.m. The ceremony kicked off with a few brief remarks by Micah Thompson, the Engaged Learning and Community Outreach advisor at RMU. Thompson was followed by University President Dr. Chris Howard.

Dr. Howard spoke about the importance of community and how humans need to rely on community. He also added how the pandemic has increased our need for community, the Renaissance time period and how that time period helped develop who we are today.

“When you walk across that stage in a couple weeks, just remain engaged. Don’t stop engaging, don’t stop connecting,” Howard said. If you do, then evil will triumph.”

John Locke, Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development, also spoke about the Renaissance Award and how great of an accomplishment the award is for students. Afterward, he presented each student with their Renaissance Award.

Starting at 4:30 p.m. was the RMU Band and Axillary Show. The show began with a brief intro by Director of Bands Betsy Charles, who introduced each song throughout the performance.

The students from the RMU Band played multiple selections of songs like “Birdland”, “I Feel Good”, and “Lost Lady Found”. The bands that performed included the jazz band, concert band, marching band, and pop band. The performance brought the campus to life with classic and moving music.

During the show, Charles brought all the seniors forward to recognize them. She mentioned the hard work they’ve done throughout their time in the RMU Band and all of their accomplishments throughout their time at the university itself.

The auxiliary performers joined the band later in the show, bringing out the skills of the dance team, color guard and majorette team. The bands and auxiliary performers fed off of each other’s energy to pull off a stunning and unique performance.

The conclusion of the evening was a performance by the talented actors and actresses of Colonial Theatre. The students performed in a show called “Edges to the Core.” The show consisted of songs and scenes performed by different students of the theatre department.

At the end of the show, John Locke returned to the stage to recognize the seniors of Colonial Theatre. He, like Charles, talked about their accomplishments within the theatre and throughout the university. As a special treat to the seniors and to the audience, they announced that the Fall show would be Xanadu, occurring in October.

The finale to the very successful day symbolized what theatre is all about, coming together. That was the point of the whole day. Student Involvement wanted to bring students together in a safe manner to celebrate the fact that we are close to being able to gather again.