Tailgates and Family Dates

Debbie and T.J. Monahan were parked in Lot Z by 7:30 a.m. Saturday, well before Maryland’s football team began whupping Villanova at noon. Their tailgate co-hosts loaded the tables with danishes, donuts and fruit, as the Rockville, Md., couple fired up the grill. It wasn’t until hours later that she could make a rough estimate of the crowd size by the number of breakfast sandwiches they served: 72.

She didn’t even count the hot dogs consumed as the party segued into lunch, and they never made it to the game. They hadn’t really come for that anyway, but for their students, Michael ’25 and Katie ’26.

“I love seeing my kids in their element and in their space, their comfort zone with all their friends and our friends and their kids,” she said. “You’d hear the yells, “Mom, here we come!,’ and it was hugs and high fives and happiness and community.”

That was the vibe of Family Weekend, when thousands of University of Maryland parents, siblings, grands and more descended on campus to reunite with their Terps a month into the semester. Students, in turn, got a restocking of supplies, a meal or two at an off-campus restaurant and the kind of affection that a text can’t replace.

The Office of Parent and Family Engagement put on a huge slate of activities for families of all ages and appetites, from a concert by legendary R&B and gospel singer Mavis Staples to the always sold-out “Not Your Grandma’s Bingo,” a fundraiser for Fostering Terp Success that was full of bawdiness and bouffants.

Blessed by glorious last-day-of-summer weather, the Terp Family Festival & BBQ on McKeldin Mall drew the biggest crowd, not just for the food but for the music, lawn games, face painting and photo booth.

Schools, colleges and other units also welcomed families, with meet-and-greets, tours, open houses, information sessions, religious services and sports matchups.

Kristen Lee of Cobleskill, N.Y., said in all the busy-ness of moving freshman son, Holden Schel, onto campus, they hadn’t gotten a chance to look around. So this weekend, they walked around, attended the football game together, stopped by the temporary Entrepreneurship and Innovation Village and toured the IDEA Factory.

“I wish we could have stayed longer,” she said. And next year, Lee mused, they’ll try tailgating too.

Below, see other scenes from Family Weekend.