Gorilla Activities Board hosts ‘BANGO’

After a hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Gorilla Activities Boards (GAB) brought back an event combining sex education with a fun party game in an effort to educate the student body about safe sex practices.

GAB hosted their spin on the classic game of bingo, called ‘BANGO,’ on Feb. 22. GAB offered a variety of sex toys as prizes for those who won. Dr. Ashley Grinonneau-Denton was also invited to talk about sex and give advice.

“It went really well, it was a bigger turnout than we thought it would be,” said Khadija Ceesay, junior in English and social-cultural chair of GAB. “We had, I want to say, 300+ people. I don’t know the exact number, but there were a lot of people. A lot of people were sitting on the floor. I think for the most part the people that weren’t being overly loud got a lot out of it. I think it was very successful.”

The event was hosted in the Crimson and Gold Ballrooms in the Overman Student Center. Many people had to pull spare chairs and sit on the floor to participate. People from different sororities and fraternities attended the event as well.

“I think people benefited from (this event) a lot,” Ceesay said. “I think (Grinonneau-Denton) made a lot of good tips and a lot of good advice. I think the people that did ask questions, some of their questions were posed as a joke, but I think they did get a lot of solid information and that she took it seriously because she is in that line of work, so I appreciate that she did take it seriously and did want to educate us.”

GAB took on the idea of ‘BANGO’ from a different organization, though they kept the general idea the same.

“My freshman year BANGO was put on with a different organization,” Ceesay said. “I thought it was a really fun event and a lot of people went to it as well. And I thought, why not have GAB do it? So I was also responsible for creating two or three events this semester, so this was one of them. Instead of doing more cultural things with a diverse organization, I thought ‘why not have GSA table this event and put this on?”

The event was hosted to educate PSU students about sex and to make the topic more comfortable to talk about.

“A bunch of people on campus don’t have awareness of things like (sex),” Ceesay said. “Their immaturity or maturity when it comes to stuff like that is very low. So I think that, especially from the women that did attend, they got a lot out of it. And even a lot of the guys took on a lot of information that they can reflect on afterward. And I think it’s something that in a small town like Pittsburg, people get excited about it. Regardless if they agree or not, I thought it was something we could all benefit from.”

GAB has a variety of events coming up in the next few months. More information can be found on Gorilla Engage and social media.

“The number one thing I’m looking forward to is Bananarama, which will be at the end of the year. We always have really fun activities,” said Addie Hinterweger, a freshman in communication.”