Shake and Wake:

Blasting Friends Out of Bed with a Friendly Wake-Up Call

By: Genna Welsh Kasun '06

Issue: Winter 2013

I've been waking people up for a couple of years, says Katie Shedlock '13, as if she's been a desk clerk at a Ritz-Carlton.

Shedlock isn't referring to hotel desk duties though—she's talking about her work for the Juniata Activities Board, which has the unique pleasure of waking students at 5 a.m. one day per year for one of Juniata's most treasured traditions: Mountain Day.

On Mountain Day, classes are cancelled so that students, professors and staff can picnic at nearby Raystown Lake. They go. They eat. They play games—the newest are giant jenga and portable mini-golf and they participate in a tug of war.

But the party can't begin until everyone is awake and Shedlock has the perfect tools of the trade.

Although we've tried pots and pans, as well as car horns, air horns are really the best, Shedlock says.

Eli Murphy '15, who served as chair of this year's Mountain Day, added a new tool of the trade.

My friend has a vuvuzela—which is a plastic horn that became popular after the World Cup took place in South Africa, says Murphy. It's not extremely loud, but its sound is unique.

After the entire campus has been awakened, and students begin to realize that today is, in fact, Mountain Day—false alarms are common—the crew calls professors at home at around 5:30 a.m. To prepare for the day ahead, Shedlock, Murphy and friends enjoy a pancake breakfast, reflecting on the chaos they've accomplished.