Junior accounting major Cameron Kaseman likes to do his homework suspended between two trees outside the library with his laptop. Of course, there are other members of the FGCU Hammock Club that Kaseman founded about a year ago who just enjoy hanging out and chilling.
“Lazy people like to be lazy, but also find some purpose, in a sense,” said Kaseman, a Virginian who “fell in love” with FGCU after visiting his grandmother in Naples and transferred here.
It is in pursuit of that purpose that some of the Hammock Club’s 40 or so active members — sometimes joined by others from an audience 10 times that big who follow the club on social media — come and go starting at 2 p.m. Fridays between Ben Hill Griffin and Reed halls when classes are in session, strap hammocks to the trees and enjoy music and conversation.
“It’s a different way to socialize,” Kaseman said. “Instead of going to parties, some of us like to hang out at Hammock Club on Friday afternoons, then call it quits for the night.”
But don’t think the Hammock Club is all sloth and no substance. Members get involved in environmental issues on campus and volunteer at the Food Forest in the Dunbar community of Fort Myers. Kaseman hopes to plan more formal Friday field trips to parks and nature trails, and the club’s vice president, Andrea Thrower, wants to organize Camping on the Lawn slumber parties next fall.
But at the end of the day, it’s all about enjoying a simple contraption that — including tree-hugging straps — brings total relaxation for $50 to $100, and club members get discounts and even free hammocks from distributors in exchange for product reviews.
“This all started as kind of a joke,” Kaseman said. “My friend wanted to start a club to meet more people and, honestly, just nap outside. But after we became a club, it took off exponentially because it’s Florida, and because our campus is beautiful.”
To learn more: https://getinvolved.fgcu.edu/organization/HammockClub