For their 60th birthday wish, the University of Calgary is hoping to be a Guinness World Record holder.

Come Saturday, when the University of Calgary campus is littered with hundreds of dinosaurs, no time travel will have been involved. Instead, the school will be hosting Rex’s Jurassic Jamboree, an attempt to break the world record for most people dressed as dinosaurs in celebration of their 60th anniversary.

The fossil-fueled school spirit will be campus-wide and include a barbecue, an Olympian-led panel and dessert, all free to enjoy.

Verity Turpin, Vice-Provost Student and Campus experience at UCalgary, said that opening the event to the general public, not just students, staff and alumni, was a no-brainer.

“We consider ourselves Calgary’s university and we can’t exist, and we don’t exist, without our community,” she said.

“These events are an opportunity to gather and celebrate our accomplishments and what we’ve all done together and that’s bigger than any one individual.”

Turpin told LWC that more than 600 people have registered for the jamboree and the school needs 469 to beat the current record. The hundreds of people dressed as dinosaurs will be a can’t-miss sight, she anticipates, but will be the tip of the iceberg for people who may be visiting campus for the first time in a while.

“I can just imagine when they come on campus and see 500-700 people dressed in fino costumes, it’s going to be electrifying. I also hope that after they have an opportunity to look and explore our buildings, some of our exhibits, our displays, our activities, and explore the university,” she said.

“We have some amazing facilities on campus, and so for folks who have not been to our campus in many years, they are going to be very surprised.”

For prospective students, the opportunity to explore the campus in a fun, unofficial way is important. Turpin said that no matter their background, the UCalgary60 celebration will be a head-first dive into the Dinos’ family.

“We have a saying at the university, it’s Start Something, and we really lean into that, so what we really want prospective students to feel is that sense of welcome, in terms of we are opening our doors to the community,” she said.

“We want to make sure that students can see themselves here.”

Academic and Athletic success roots run deep

During the one-hour panel, dubbed the Start Something, EH! panel, UCalgary Alum and Olympians Catriona Le May Doan, Mark Tewskbury, Dr. Cari Din, Brendan MacKay and Carol Huynh will speak about their athletic triumphs and the role UCalgary played in their development.

Turpin said that UCalgary students, alumni, and faculty have each impacted the school as much as the school has impacted them.

Dr. Cari Din, who completed her undergrad and graduate school at UCalgary and is now a Professor of Kinesiology, said that her post-secondary learning continues to make an impact.

“As an undergrad, it really opened my eyes and my head and frankly, my heart, to thinking about the world completely differently. I came away, and I didn’t know it at the time, seeing the world through new eyes,” she said.

“That’s what we’re trying to do, get students to take a perspective on their own. I had these incredible experiences with legendary professors that got me thinking deeply. When I’m at my best in front of a class of undergraduates, I’m channeling those professors and those ways of thinking.”

As a full-time athlete, Din was training between 20 and 30 hours per week. Even with academic stress, school was a place for her to escape.

“Having a breath and a break from that intense identity really, really helped me actually become a strong athlete and a strong student,” she said.

During her first go-around at UCalgary, Din was training for the 1996 Summer Olympics, something very different from most student experiences.

“The training was long, it was circuitous and it was wrapped up in my identity. The lead up was super intense, we were training from 7 AM until noon every day in the water and then coming back in the afternoon to do strength and dry land from. None of us went to school that year,” she said.

After helping the Canadian Synchronized Swimming Team secure a silver medal, Din came back to the university to finish her undergrad. Coming back to UCalgary, Din said, was a decision made as a Dino and as a Calgarian.

Once she became a coach, Din felt like she was missing something.

“Before I did my master’s degree, I was a new coach. I coached in my home sport for a number of years and I got to study how my athletes were learning and met this wonderful grad supervisor who inspired me to do great work and be a great leader and so coming back to the university to do a PhD, it felt like an unfinished quest,” she said.

“I was still drawn into and humbled by the influence of a teacher, a leader, a mentor, a coach on whether or not we’re physically active and whether or not we could win an Olympic medal and the whole span of how our behavior as a person in power influences the person moving and learning,” she said.

Today, now on the other side of the classroom, Din hopes to teach and continue learning as much as she can.

“I’m fascinated by what coaches do, what physios do, what doctors do, all the things that in kinesiology we’re trying to influence, to positively impact,” she said.

“I’ll tell you, I’m still absolutely fascinated by that learning and leading process.”