Students attended a pumpkin paint night in the Memorial Union to show solidarity with those impacted by breast cancer. PHOTO CREDIT: Greg Clark
October is a very popular month for many reasons. It marks the true beginning of Autumn, Halloween is at the end of the month and it is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, one in eight women in the United States will be diagnosed in her lifetime. On Friday night at the University of Rhode Island, the Student Senate Cultural Affairs Committee hosted a pumpkin painting event in the Memorial Union Ballroom to show solidarity to those impacted by breast cancer within the URI community.
Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Angelica Tyson, a junior at URI, has hosted and taken part in many activities related to breast cancer through making hats, headscarves and other headwear for women with breast cancer. She also made little pink ribbons and gave them out for free to students. Tyson said that she has only worked with and done things for breast cancer specifically, and she has received much positive feedback on her work.
For the pumpkin painting event, Tyson said that it received the most signups of any of her events since COVID-19 began.
“As a multicultural chair on campus, I strive to make sure everyone’s voices, backgrounds and experiences are heard on this campus to feel like they belong,” Tyson said. “I feel like if you don’t see yourself in a University, it affects every aspect of your life. I feel like if you see yourself, you’re more likely to succeed and get your degree and make friends [in] the process.”
Tyson said that a lot of events are sometimes “sad and boring,” and she believed that painting pumpkins sounded “fun and exciting,” which is why she chose it. It allowed for strangers on campus to connect and make new friends and was also a good way to get excited for Halloween, and try to bring the spirit of Halloween to people.
You got to choose your own pumpkins and your own paint colors, and then get creative and paint whatever you wanted. Tyson also provided apple cider for everyone to drink and brought three boxes full of cookies from Insomnia Cookies for everyone to eat. It was a very chill and relaxing experience, with a friendly and safe atmosphere overall.
Oli Horyn, a sophomore at URI, was sitting at a table painting silhouettes of trees very accurately.
“I was talking to my roommate about it, and I said it sounded like fun,” Horyn said of why she attended the event.
Painting next to her was her friend, sophomore Kristal Stahler, who was also informed about this event by her roommate. Stahler was painting a pumpkin with a pink base, and wrote the phrase “Save the Boobs” on it; as a play on a ghost’s “BOO.” After everyone saw the phrase on Stahler’s pumpkin, it became the joke and quote of the night.
In all, the pumpkin painting event was a very chill and casual event that lasted for two entertaining and relaxing hours full of pumpkin painting, cookie eating and not having to worry about anything else.