Iowa State will continue a time-honored tradition when Family Weekend kicks off Friday.

Ellen Dunseth, alumni services program assistant and adviser for Family Weekend, said she believes it is a great opportunity for Iowa State families to get together and celebrate.

“The purpose of Family Weekend is to honor families and students who have attended or do attend Iowa State University, and especially those who have contributed to our success,” Dunseth said. All families of Iowa State students are invited to participate in Family Weekend, she said.

“We are not sure how many families will attend because the only event we try to get numbers for ahead of time is the tailgate, and not all families will attend that,” she said. “We have about one thousand families registered for the tailgate, and it seems like our numbers are up this year.”

Dunseth said Family Weekend will run about the same as it has in the past. “We have an evening game this year and normally it has been in the afternoon, but there are no new additions to the event this year,” she said.

Samantha Sexton, a family weekend entertainment co-chair and freshman in pre-journalism and mass communication, said a lot of planning goes into Family Weekend.

“We’ve been working for about a year in planning these events. We meet once a week and have office hours so there is a lot of time that goes into it,” Sexton stated.

Sexton hopes students and their families will take part in the activities around campus during the weekend.

“Our main goal is to make sure that families enjoy themselves while they are here at Iowa State. We are especially hoping that they will attend the hypnotist, tailgate, and Sunday brunch. We just hope they will enjoy themselves and have a lot of fun,” she said.

There will be numerous events on campus all weekend in celebration of this event. There will be a hypnotist from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Friday in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

Dunseth said this is a good event for families to attend because “they can just come to the door to get their tickets and don’t have to worry about purchasing them beforehand.”

There will also be a special brunch on Sunday in most of the dining centers on campus beginning at 10:30 a.m. Dunseth said students who don’t live in the residence halls can also attend this brunch with their families, for a fee.

For a complete list of events around campus or more information about Family Weekend, visit www.isusalc.org.