The GW community gathered to celebrate the birthday of the nation’s first president – and the University’s namesake – on the Quad Tuesday evening.

Students dined on baked potatoes, cake, pea soup and s’mores, and a fife and drum band dressed in Continental Army uniforms served as the evening’s entertainment.

The festivities kicked off at 5:30 p.m. as University Marshal Jill Kasle and President Stephen Joel Trachtenberg addressed hundreds of students and community members as they waited in line for food and huddled around a bonfire blazing in the University Yard.

The evening’s main event consisted of a cherry pie-eating contest. Prior to the contest, junior Steve Keating stood poised in a protective poncho, focusing on his competitors.

“The competition doesn’t stand a chance,” Keating said. “They don’t know what they’re up against, bunch of amateurs.”

Participants plunged deep into pies for two minutes and 22 seconds, a duration representing the date of Washington’s Feb. 22 birthday. Keating lived up to his pre-game trash talk as judges Trachtenberg, Kasle and Sandra Moore, founder of the Fifes and Drums of Prince William III, declared him the winner.

Student Association President Omar Woodard was one of Keating’s victims in the pie-eating contest, but he had a logical excuse for his loss.

“I was inhaling cherries; that’s no fun,” Woodard said with a chuckle. “You can’t win that way.”

Despite the large turnout, celebrating Washington’s birthday has not always been a priority at the University. Washington’s birthday was just like any other day around campus until Trachtenberg assembled a committee of students and staff members to plan different ways to celebrate the first president’s birthday in 1997.

“It seemed to me since he was my boss that we ought to show him proper respect,” Trachtenberg said. “It’s gotten bigger every year, depending on the weather.”

The University Events office planned the celebration, and executive director Jim Hess said he thought this year’s festivities were successful, with temperatures Tuesday evening in the 40s.

“We have a good turnout,” Hess said. “There are long lines at the food, and it’s the best weather we’ve had in a while.”

Although good weather is always a crucial factor, Hess added, “One year, it was the coldest day of the entire winter and we still had a good turnout.”

Throughout the evening the Fifes and Drums of Prince William III, founded by Moore in 1997, played to the delight of the crowd.

“We look forward to this event every year,” Moore said. “The Office of University Events supported us since our inception.”

Perhaps the biggest draw of any college event is free food, and most students enjoyed the unusual platter of potatoes and soup at the event; however, some complained that food ran out quickly.

“I was excited for the festivities, but they finked out on the food. A half hour after it started, the food was gone,” sophomore Harris Blum said,

Most of those fortunate enough to get to the front of the line said they enjoyed the celebration.

“It’s a lovely thing,” said junior Luke Dickinson. “I like the fife and drum, and the cake was good.”

Freshman Jamie France added, “It’s very unique. You won’t find things like this at any other school, and I like that we commemorate the University’s namesake.”