Elle Cota, Spectrum Editor
For one hour on Sept. 3, Monroe Park looked less like a downtown Richmond park and a little more like a playground.
More than 100 people gathered from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. for Infection Tag, a free event organized by Ruckus, a community-based organization focused on providing resources and spaces bringing love. The group was led by Odist Powell alongside his longtime friend, Joe Armstrong.
The event featured four rounds of tag, each lasting around 12 minutes. The organizers sectioned off portions of the park near S. Belvidere St. and W. Main St. so participants could run without disrupting others using the space.
At the beginning of the event, Powell asked participants to stretch physically and mentally by talking to someone new.
At the beginning of each round, organizers selected one person to be “it.” After giving the other players 10 seconds to scatter, the runner in a pink pinnie jersey chased them down. Each person tagged grabbed a pink pinnie jersey or sweatband before rejoining the game as another tagger.
Powell drew inspiration from an event he attended in New York City in February called Wrestling Speed Dating, hosted by the organization Grown Kid, a social club for people who believe that the meaning of life is play. He traveled to the event as a referee and met Gael Aitor, co-founder of Grown Kid.
“I wanted to take it back home,” Powell said. “How can I bring this kind of sense of connection that isn’t traditional in the way of just like a book club.”
The event was designed to give people a chance to step away from the pressure of adulthood and simply have fun, Powell said. Making the event free and holding it in the middle of Richmond helped remove barriers to socializing and lessen transportation needs.
“It’s tag,” Powell said. “We’ve all played it before. We all know what it looks like.”
Izzie Clayborn, a first-year Brightpoint Community College student, attended after seeing the event on Instagram. She said she wanted an opportunity to play tag, meet new people and do something outside her normal routine.
“Even though I would say you could play it at any age,” Clayborn said. “So, it kind of allows people to break through that social norm a little bit and allows people to kind of go back to having fun and being carefree.”
Abby Portz, a first-year University of Richmond student, who attended with Clayborn, wanted to become more social with the start of college and saw the event as a chance to try something new.
Portz said she used to play tag almost every day in elementary school and with her cousins. She said a lot of people’s best memories and moments are from their childhood, so if they get an opportunity to relive that, they take it and go for that community.
“I know being independent is usually associated with being an adult, but I feel like I’ve been more childlike and free … since I got here,” Portz said.
Reese McInnis, a third-year Virginia Commonwealth University psychology student, said the idea of hundreds of college students playing tag in a park sounded like the kind of spontaneous community event that was worth attending.
“We’re like emerging adults now, so we’re getting bombarded with actual work,” McInnis said. “I think just the aspect like, you know, just playing a game again for fun is really enticing to a college.”
Preston Herring, a recent transfer student from Reynold’s Community College to VCU, initially expected Infection Tag to be a normal game of tag. After seeing Ruckus’s emphasis on forming a community, it convinced him to attend.
Herring recalled his last time playing tag being in fifth or sixth grade, but said this game of tag did not bring back many childhood memories for him.
“When you’re a kid, you can go to the playground and make friends ‘cause you’re all together, but when you’re an adult the only real way to meet people is at a job or at an event you’re doing with your community,” Herring said. “I think stuff like this is really important ‘cause it brings everybody together ‘cause it’s something anybody can do, really.”
Aidan Cleray, first-year VCU urban and regional studies student, came to meet people and be part of the community.
“I think it’s a reminder of your childhood,” Cleray said. “I think a lot of people lose creativity and just the ability to have joy without worry once they age.”
Matthew Blackin, a first-year VCU business and economics student, and friend of Cleray, said the last time he played tag was last year during Halloween in his hometown.
Blackin decided to come to the event after seeing a quote that read “the antidote to adult dread is childlike fun.”
As the game ended and participants left Monroe Park, the laughter and running gave way to the routines of adulthood waiting beyond the park. A simple game of tag gave more than 100 people a chance to be carefree again, reminding them that growing up does not have to mean leaving that feeling behind.