Before the Greeks took over campus, the Romans ruled the school.

This week, four Creighton clubs banned together to form the first annual Roman Week on campus, which is centered around Catholic values getting people involved in the clubs.

Each of the four organizations – Knights of Columbus, Rosary Club, St. Canisius Society and Creighton Students for Life – came up with an event to hold during the week that would be fun for every kind of student, whether he or she was interested in their group.

So if anyone saw students running up and down the mall playing capture the flag Monday night, the Rosary Club was responsible.

Natalie Van Heek, second-year pharmacy student and president of the Rosary Club, said it was a nice way to get the club noticed without being pushy.

“We recognized that Monday was the celebration of [St.] Mary’s birthday, so we thought of it as a birthday party theme,” she said.

Instead of dealing with messy food, they opted for a good, old-fashioned party game.

The Knights of Columbus, on the other hand, wanted to go the food route, handing out nearly 100 plates of BBQ to students.

Damian Baalmann, Arts & Sciences senior and president of the Creighton chapter of Knights of Columbus, got the ball rolling on Roman Week after attending a KOC conference. Both Van Heek and Baalmann said they heard about their respective organizations by chance, by seeing a poster flyer.

“I honestly wouldn’t be a member, let alone president if I didn’t glance at an involvement board and happen to see a poster,” Baalmann said.

This was a good chance for these clubs to get noticed by the campus as well as get the organizations together and do something out of the ordinary.

Stephen Hart, Arts & Sciences sophomore, said the St. Canisius Society, of which he is president, has only existed for two years, so he wanted to introduce his organization to the students.

After 4:30 p.m. Mass on Sundays, the society has a speaker in lower St. John’s Church to address issues of Catholic faith.

“Once we heard Damian propose the idea for Roman Week, we all thought, ‘Why wait? This is a great way to get people to know who we are,'” Hart said. “This was not a ‘shove religion down your throat’ thing. It was a fun way to get our new organization recognized by the student body.”

Contact [email protected] for information about Roman weekend activities and other events coming up.