Fall Fest | Stories from the Hill

McDaniel College really cares about our well being prior to and during finals week, and they show this by planning events to help students have fun and destress a little. Tonight, the Office of Residence Life (better known as Res Life), which is responsible for housing on campus, threw an indoor carnival-type thing in that they dubbed Fall Fest.

Fall Fest took place in Ensor Lounge, which is an open area on the top level of Decker Center, the student center on campus, and I don’t think I’d ever encountered as many people in Ensor as I did this evening. It was so well attended that I often had difficulty getting from area to area of the room.

Why was this so popular? It had what all college students love: free food, chances to win prizes, and an opportunity to have fun with friends. There were stations for making Christmas ornaments, tie-dye, and friendship bracelets and other crafts. There were games too: tossing the ball into glass fish bowls could win students real live goldfish, while other games involved knocking down pins and spinning wheels for prizes. There was plenty of free food to choose from too. There were caramel apples, fresh popcorn, tasty smoothies, and even cotton candy spun by the Res Life director Michael Robbins himself. Other activities included a pie eating contest and bobbing for apples, and excitingly, students could enter a raffle to win a NOOK.

I spent a little time at Fall Fest and enjoyed myself a lot. I made an ornament, had a smoothie and cotton candy, and had a nice time chatting with people I knew as I watched people trying to win goldfish. Eventually though, it got too crowded for my liking, so I returned to my suite. I hope that next year, if they hold this again, they’ll do it in the gym so there’s more room for people.

It’s been quite a lovely evening though. Every night this week, I’ve set aside time for lounging in my suite’s common room and decorating it for Christmas. Tonight, I hung up more Christmas lights, and then my suite mates and I spent some time watching footage of a fire on a laptop while listening to jazz music–very relaxing and super classy! It’s important not to get too bogged down in end-of-semester work. You’ll stay much more sane if you devote some time to yourself and your relaxation every day.

This weekend, I volunteered at Westminster’s Fall Fest, which is held every fall and raises money to benefit four local charities. I volunteered at the Make-Your-Own-Scarecrow Tent that was operated by the Stacy Davis Breast Cancer Fund. At the tent, which was decked out in everything pink, people could pay $10 in order to build their own scarecrow. The coordinators from the Breast Cancer Fund also had us selling raffle tickets and jewelry so that we could help them make as much money as they possibly could.

Making a scarecrow was something I had never done before, so when I had to help the little kids make their scarecrows, it took a lot of effort. In order to make a scarecrow, you have to shove handfuls of hay down pantyhose to create the arms. Then, you shove the “arms” through a shirt. After that, you tie the pants legs so that they are shut, and then shove the pants legs with hay as well. Then, you connect the shirt and the pants to finish making the body. Each child was given a face kit so that they could decorate the faces of the scarecrow and then finish it off with a hat.

The children that were making the scarecrows had a lot of fun and thought it was really cool to see their scarecrows come together. For me, it was a new experience that I feel like I will never forget, since it was something that I have never gotten a chance to do. I also really enjoyed having the chance to help the little kids make their scarecrows, since I felt like I was really making their night better while also helping a great cause.

Stories from the Hill

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Fall Fest!

Scarecrows, and Raffles, and Bracelets–Oh my!