As the leaves turned and fell, Pingree’s well-loved Fall Fest commenced on the front lawn.
As students poured out of classes on Friday morning, October 18th, they enjoyed the autumn festivities with clubs such as Pingree Spirit Club, Green Team, Swiftly Painting and others that helped establish the event.
Activities such as the hay bale toss, apple tasting, painting cardboard pumpkins, and coffeehouse allowed the community to unite and enjoy the fall climate.
Also, food is an essential part of Fall Fest as students look forward to the various treats. This year students enjoyed apple cider donuts, cotton candy, and assorted apples with caramel. Dr. Nasser kindly helped by running the cotton candy station, and Ms. Kent assisted with the apples and hay barrels, highlighting the engagement of various community members.
In terms of student engagement, Green Team member Eliza Payne said Coffeehouse was“a big hit” and involved students in a less serious manner than performing at morning meetings. As Coffeehouse was led by Colbie Lind Johnson and Alex Molddovean, they exhibited the student-led aspects of Fall Fest.
A big part of the planning, organization, and setup of this event is led by the Green Team leaders, Jessica Garon, Khyati Patel, Ai Pynchon, and Eliza Payne.
During the first couple months of school Green Team meets every couple of weeks to promote and encourage interest in bettering our community. Fall Fest is just one of the activities Green Team contributes to the schools efforts in providing a more sustainable campus and environment.
The Fall Season is also an important time for Green Team to promote awareness about the importance of sustainability during the Halloween Season.
Ali Pynchon states that this community event can help to boost participation in sustainability because “Fall fest tends to have good energy behind it”. By creating different events for students so they can appreciate the beauty of our campus and surrounding environment, we can recognize and “celebrate the changing of seasons”.
While interviewing Ali Pynchon, she provided information about the Halloween season’s effects on the environment.
Ali stated that “Halloween and fall especially are big seasons of waste so trying to find activities and projects that create less waste is important to encouraging school participation in sustainability”. Ali also shared significant facts and statistics highlighting the amount of waste created during the Halloween season at a community-wide morning meeting.
On top of those activities, Eliza Payne shared the behind-the-scenes of the apple tasting, stating that the apples that are used are sourced from “local farms”, adding to the sustainability factor of the Fall Fest mission.
Through numerous activities and festivities Fall Fest succeeded in “appreciating the campus” and “celebrat[ing] [the] changing of seasons” as Green Team Member Ali Pynchon stated, even though she believes “Pingree can have some lack of involvement in activities”, Fall Fest 2024 proved to have a “good energy”, proving the event as a success.