Students painted pumpkins and made slime on the Quad for the Office of Student Involvement’s Fall Fest that took place on Wednesday, Oct. 30.
The creation of the event dates to a few years ago, accordion to Julia “Juju” Al-Amir, the graduate assistant for Student Involvement. In the beginning, the draw was apple cider, donuts and pumpkin painting. This year, they expanded the event to the quad as a bigger location to attract more students.
Student Involvement collaborated with Housing and Residential Life, WRIU 90.3 FM and URI Public Safety for the event, Al-Amir said. Public Safety gave out free food, WRIU played music and HRL bought a mechanical pumpkin for students to ride on.
The day before the event, Al-Amir bought 400 pumpkins from the Farmer’s Daughter, a local garden center that grows fresh vegetables, she said. Student Involvement also bought personalized banners for students to put their names on. Additionally, there were giveaways, stress balls, stickers and candy.
“We’re kind of providing you with an opportunity to try an alternative for Halloween instead of drinking alcohol” Al-Amir said.
A booth printing personalized banners attracted a long line of people. There were two choices to choose from, a spider or a pumpkin. After choosing, they told the vendor what they wanted written on their banner.
Besides pumpkin painting and getting personalized banners, students made slime while drinking apple cider and eating donuts. Ella Huston, a fourth-year majoring in political science, was painting a spooky theme for her pumpkin and incorporating worms.
“[I wanted to] make it something that could be put in a museum,” Huston said.
The food that was made by Public Safety attracted Sasha Greenburg, a second-year elementary education major, she said. For the pumpkin painting, Greenburg didn’t realize that making slime was a separate activity. Instead, she made the slime and put it on her pumpkin.
While walking through the Quad to the engineering building, the food being served at Fall Fest attracted Carissa Sullivan, a third-year biomedical engineering major. She saw the pumpkins and decided to paint a pumpkin with a graveyard scene and make purple slime.
“I’m going to give [the pumpkin and slime] to my niece,” Sullivan said. “[My niece] loves it when I come home and bring something for her.”
The Fall Fest interested student Hazelynn Rios because she loves Halloween. She never painted a pumpkin, only carved, so it’s a first time experience for her.
Future Student Involvement events include a Thanksgiving food drive in collaboration with the Rhody Outpost, set for sometime this month according to Al-Amir.
For more information about events, visit the Office of Student Involvement’s Instagram, @uri.officeofsi.