Iowa State held its first-ever “CyDay” event Friday, in an effort to provide students with relief from difficult classes and raise school spirit on campus and within the Ames community.

The event is part of the university’s new “Eye on Cy” pride- and spirit-building campaign.

The main goal of CyDay was to bring more school pride to students on campus, said Leesha Zimmerman, program coordinator at the ISU trademark office.

As part of the event, Cy, Iowa State’s mascot, made his way through campus and to area businesses Friday afternoon awarding people for showing ISU spirit with T-shirts and other ISU merchandise.

“CyDay was a lot of fun,” said Andrew Frana, freshman in mechanical engineering.

“I saw him on campus, and then later at a volleyball game. It was really cool.”

The event, however, may not have been as effective as originally hoped for.

“I didn’t even know what the event was,” said Edana Carlson, senior in hotel, restaurant and institution management.

“I didn’t hear anything about it on campus and didn’t see Cy anywhere.”

Students said the event was effective, especially for freshmen. “The CyDay event is definitely a good way to raise school spirit on campus,” said Larry Smith, freshman in pre-architecture.

“Right now it might not be totally effective, but as the year goes on it will get better.”

Another reason the “Eye on Cy” campaign may become more popular later on in the semester is freshmen students might not have had the chance to purchase ISU clothing so early in the semester, Smith said.

The “Eye on Cy” campaign will continue throughout the football season.