ISABELLA INZINNA
Staff Writer
The Alumni and Nixon Hall Resident Assistant (RA) staff joined forces to celebrate the season by holding a pumpkin painting and carving contest on Oct. 22.
The team wanted to give students an opportunity to participate in a fun fall activity on campus.
Resident Director (RD) Kayla Makosiej said she doesn’t believe an event like this has been done campus-wide, but it has likely been done within residence halls.
On the day of the event, a good number of students decided to attend.
The event had a turnout of 30 to 45 students in total.
There were posters plastered all around campus, which drew a decent amount of attention.
Plus, the event was free and open to all students.
Justin Hoock, a freshman English education major, said, “I was looking for a fun fall activity with my partner and we saw the flyers; it was perfect.”
Students were given the option of carving or painting a pumpkin and some students chose a combination of the two.
As for the contest portion, about 12 students submitted their pumpkins to be judged. These students had a chance to win a Walmart gift card, a DoorDash gift card or a boo basket filled with Halloween goodies.
The winning pumpkins were “Yellow Face” in third place, “Cat” in second place and “Elmo” in first place.
Hoock won third place, saying, “There were a lot of creative and funny pumpkins, so it was pretty awesome to place in the top three.”
This event is a part of a new Residence Life event model. Starting this year, residence halls are being paired up to plan and host campus-wide events. The RA staff of both halls work together to make these events happen.
The goal is to give students more activities on campus throughout the year. This will then give students the opportunity to stay on campus and have fun for less money.
Hoock said, “The campus events are fun and free. They give students an accessible form of entertainment that doesn’t require you to leave campus.”
As the colder weather starts to set in, there’s hope that on-campus events will continue helping students cure their boredom.