Students bring Halloween indoors with pumpkin carving at Algonquin College
The Student Commons vibrated with spooky music, laughter and had an aroma of pumpkin guts as the Students’ Association hosted the Pumpkin Patch Party on Oct. 30.
The event, originally planned for the front lawn, moved indoors due to the rainy weather. Even with the change, more than 80 students took part, filling the room with the sounds of knives carving and a sweet chocolate smell.
Nine tables were spread out with carving tools and each had a bin for people to scoop out and dump their pumpkin insides. Students could sit with friends or join new tables to carve alongside others.
Halloween music played in the background, featuring classics like Monster Mash and This Is Halloween. Hot chocolate was served to keep everyone warm and cozy while they worked on their creations.
Sparrow Kaye, a horticultural industries student, carved an owl design.
“I’m carving a little owl in my pumpkin because they’re my favourite animal,” Kaye said. “It’s definitely messier than I expected. It’s also been a while since I’ve carved pumpkins, but I’m having a great time, 10 out of 10.”
Specter Aubin, from design foundations, went for a spooky look.
“I’m carving a really creepy monster,” Aubin said. “I didn’t plan it out too much. I just started carving and went with the flow. I’m leaving it for the contest.”
Students had the option to leave their pumpkins behind and have them entered into the jack-o’-lantern contest on Oct. 31.
Film student Luca Arnold took inspiration from a video game.
“I’m carving the fountain in Deltarune and the three main characters,” Arnold said. “There’s this pumpkin game by the developers of A Short Hike and it gave me the idea. I came in planning to win. I hope to win.”
According to SA coordinator Alain Cyr-Russo, this is the third year the event has been held.
“We’ve been watching the weather for a week,” Cyr-Russo said. “Normally, this event is held outside, but we moved it inside this year. We had over 80 students take part in our pumpkin patch party, and 38 entered the contest.”
After the contest, the leftover pumpkins were sent to be composted through the Tomlinson Group, while the pumpkin insides were sent to the Wolves Den’s compost program.
Whether they carved owls, monsters or video game fountains, students left the event smiling, pumpkins in hand and ready for sugar and pumpkin spice and all things nice.
