A spooky, Halloween themed, pumpkin painting event held by the Environmental and Civil Engineering Societies
Winner of the pumpkin painting contest ,Isobel, being commending by Dr.Yi Liu( Head of Civil and Resource Engineering) and Dr. Walsh for her artistic skills!
Society Held Pumpkin Painting Event
By: Rory McPhail
Halloween. The spooky season of ghosts, ghouls, goblins, and trying to survive that midterm that your prof thoughtfully put on November 1. A staple of any Halloween celebration is the pumpkin: pumpkin pie, pumpkin costumes, pumpkin shaped decorations, and baked pumpkin seeds. Most importantly is pumpkin carving. There’s nothing quite like slicing the top off a pumpkin and scooping out the innards. Cutting the perfect face or shape in your pumpkin and placing that first candle in to see the eerie glow is a joy unique to Halloween.
However, despite the many joys of pumpkin carving there are a few drawbacks. First, if you live in a typical university house and you only own one large kitchen knife because your roommate didn’t wash the other one over the summer and let it become covered in mold, then decided to throw it out, (a very common issue I’m told) then pumpkin carving can be a painful ordeal as everyone must wait to use the singular knife. Next, while some readers may enjoy the slimy feeling of ripping out pumpkin guts, others are not so keen. Finally, the most pressing concern associated with pumpkin carving is the chance that your jack-o-lantern will not be satisfied with sitting on the porch. It may become sentient, find a body and the nearest farmer’s field to lie in wait for carefree Halloween revelers to dismember. Hence, pumpkin carving is not for the faint of heart.
Enter the Environmental and Civil Engineering Societies with a revolutionary idea: pumpkin painting. The two societies held a joint pumpkin painting event on October 31st in the T-room. Students from both disciplines came out to enjoy an afternoon of Halloween fun. Pumpkins were painted, candy was munched and every university student’s favourite meal was available: free pizza. After the pumpkins were painted, a contest was held to determine the winning pumpkin. Faculty members Dr. Yi Liu and Dr. Margaret Walsh came down to judge the entries. There was fierce competition but in the end Isobel, a third year civil engineering student, won. Their pumpkin depicted the accreditation officials on one side and a civil engineering student… dancing in joy?… beside a wall after taking the structures midterm on the other side. Isobel won not only the respect of their classmates for their impressive pumpkin painting ability but also a $25 gift card. The runners up were painted by Simon and Carson. They were a city landscape and a white pumpkin with splatter paint. The Civil and Environmental Societies threw a great Halloween event, and no pumpkins became sentient, that we know of. Some of the pumpkins have been put on short term display outside the Civil and Resources Engineering department in the D building. This event was one of the many great opportunities offered by the discipline societies, so make sure to check out your discipline society for all their future events.