More than 65,000 Visitors "Explore Our World" on Maryland Day 2012

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - It may have been a tad cool on Maryland Day, Saturday April 28, but the University of Maryland campus was rocking with more than 65,000 visitors who had great fun exploring a record 460+ events. Maryland Day is the only day of the year that the university opens its doors to the community so visitors can "Explore Our World."

The Twitterverse was full of comments about the popular open house like "Had an incredible day @MarylandDay yesterday" and "What a great day with happy kids."

And then there was the family who had not considered any other event that day. As related by Confucius Institute Coordinator Rebecca McGinnis:

"... At our Chinese Culture table, I asked several families what brought them out on this cold, gray weather, when they could be snuggly and warm at home. In each case, their eyes lit up, and the smiles were instant, and the reply was always along these lines: "This is Maryland Day! It's a tradition, it's a big community event, so of course we'll be here! We love it!!!'"

University President Wallace Loh and wife Barbara spent the entire day touring all six Maryland Day neighborhoods. He stopped at Journalism's Knight Hall (right) to do a weather forecast for WUSA's "Life in the Anchor Chair" event.

Afterwards, Dr. Loh sent out an email to the entire campus, saying he wished he "could thank personally each of the 9,000 staff, students and faculty for the countless hours you devoted to making our university shine. Saturday was a fantastic day and thanks to the work of so many of you, our campus looked magnificent."

Social media took center stage helping to promote Maryland Day - and to keep visitors informed. The Maryland Day App for i-devices was a big hit. The Maryland Day Facebook page jumped to more than 2300 likes. The Maryland Day Flickr page swelled with photos. The iSchool created a Tumblr page for visitors and volunteers to post photos. Philip Merrill College of Journalism Professor Ron Yaros had many of his students Tweeting with photos, audio and video - a total of 711 Tweets in all (see their feed below).

Yaros said, "After researching digital media all semester, this capstone Maryland Day assignment required students to collect, assemble and present high quality digital information that explains engineering, the sciences, the arts, and so on, to online audiences. Instead of completing a term paper, the goal is for students to leave the course better prepared to compete and communicate multimedia related to their fields."

Maryland Day garnered live TV reports from WUSA9 in Washington, DC and WMAR (ABC2) Baltimore. Comcast Newsmakers broadcast a five-minute interview during the month of April about Maryland Day with Coordinator Holly DeArmand. She also did an interview for WPGC radio. The Washington Post, Express, PG Gazette newspapers all had stories and Maryland Day was listed in community calendars throughout the state. The Maryland Day PSA was broadcast one educational and local government channels in Maryland as well. Maryland Day was also featured on News Channel 8's Let's Talk Live.

MARYLAND DAY 2012 BY THE NUMBERS

• 65,780 guests in attendance
• More than 17,000 guests visited the Stamp Student Union
• The Food Court in Stamp had its biggest Maryland Day ever
• The National Archives reports that 8,000 people visited their tent on the Mall
• 3,000 scoops of ice cream were served at the Dairy
• 1,300 guests attended the main Admissions session
• At capacity crowd at the Kevin Clash event at the Clarice Smith Center
• Shuttle services had 3,100 riders throughout the day.
• Nearly 2 million page hits on the Maryland Day website
• 685 tables ordered
• 1,575 chairs ordered
• 89 tents ordered

We'll see you on Saturday, April 27, 2013 for the 15th Anniversary Edition of Maryland Day!

Maryland Day Website
Maryland Day Facebook page
Maryland Day Twitter feed

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