Hundreds of Latinos visited Champaign-Urbana Sunday not only to see their student family members, but also to participate in the third annual Latino Family Visit Day.

Cathy Acevedo, Latino Family Visit Day co-chair, said events took place at a variety of locations throughout campus, including a buffet luncheon at the Union, information sessions in the Natural History Building and activities for students’ younger siblings provided by the Division of Campus Recreation.

Luis Narvaez-Gete, a University alumnus who now works at the Chicago branch of the University’s admissions office, said the program started when he helped co-write the proposal for its funding during his senior year about two years ago. Bank One agreed to help finance the event and has continued to do so since merging with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

“It was like a graduation gift to find out that this would be taking place,” Narvaez-Gete said.

Lupe Williams, a staffing manager with J.P. Morgan Chase Bank, said the bank continues to fund the majority of Latino Family Visit Day because of the positive impact the University has on Urbana-Champaign and the growing Latino population.

“As a Hispanic, it’s really important for our families to see the value of continuing education,” Williams said, referring to the potential challenges of convincing families of first-generation students about the value of a college degree. “We’d like to establish a stronger relationship with the University so we can continue to recruit talent here.”

Acevedo said the most expensive aspects of the event were the luncheon and the two busses that provided service from the University of Illinois at Chicago early Sunday to Champaign and back again Sunday evening for the 125 visitors in need of transportation. Each family also was to receive a complimentary 5-by-7-inch portrait by a professional photographer at the event.

“You see families experiencing the American dream, and an education at the U of I is the pathway to wealth,” said photographer Joseph Storch of Storch Photographic, 2211 N. Barker Rd., Champaign. “I love to see these families come through. We really open our arms to everybody in Champaign.”

Acevedo said that most of the day’s events and programs, with about 80 families amounting to 400 attendees in all, were delivered in Spanish in order to make the families feel more comfortable and encourage discussion.

“A lot of times our Latino students are doing everything on their own because their parents don’t understand anything about the American system of college,” Acevedo said. “This is a way to teach Spanish-speaking families ‘college knowledge’ at U of I.”

Acevedo also said younger siblings were not forgotten even though invitations went out to the families of freshman students, many of whom are the first-generation in their households to be raised in the United States and continue their education beyond high school. The day included events such as dancing, basketball, swimming, soccer, a movie at Campus Recreation Center East, and ice-skating at the ice arena, specifically targeted at entertaining the younger siblings.

“We’re trying to get these siblings psyched about U of I, so when it’s time for them to think about college, they’ll come to U of I,” Acevedo said.

She also pointed out that this event could not have taken place without the commitment of a variety of University offices, organizations and 97 student volunteers.

Susan Diaz De Leon, senior in LAS and one of the volunteers, worked La Casa Cultural’s booth at the morning’s resource fair where different colleges, programs and student organizations set up booths to inform both students and family members of what they provide.

“I just tell them (La Casa) is Latinos educating other Latinos about their culture and what they’re about,” Diaz De Leon said. “(Latino Family Visit Day) is very beneficial because a lot of parents don’t know what their students are doing here, and seeing what their kids are doing puts them more at ease.”

Jeannette Hoyos, freshman in LAS, said she planned on taking advantage of the ice arena activities with her younger sister, but the day proved to be helpful in educating both her and her parents on what the University has to offer.

“I like that they got to see the places and how I live and what’s going on with me,” Hoyos said. “It was nice to see the tables with the organizations because I saw things I had never seen before,” she said.