Five Senses of Project Pumpkin

Yesterday was Project Pumpkin, and it was a glorious day on all fronts: great weather, tons of little kids (as well as college students), and this event had the same energy and feel as the pre-pandemic Project Pumpkins, which was a balm to my soul. So today I bring you the Five Senses of Project Pumpkin.

I see…

• Spiderman inviting a [student-led] group of trick-or treaters to come in to their residence hall lounge, while spooky music played from within. The lounge patio was nicely decorated with big spiderwebs.
• A guy walking three dogs on the Quad. I want to pet them all.
• A wide variety of student costumes: angel wings (and also some fairy wings), cowboy hats, bunny ears, a NASA space suit, a hotdog, a pumpkin. There are several students dressed as bananas, and I have seen at least two sets of Dr. Seuss’ Thing 1 and Thing 2.
• Tables spaced at even intervals all throughout the Quad. These are tables from student organizations or campus offices, and each has an activity that the visiting kids can do: stickers, games, coloring, etc. Most of the tables also have some sort of candy or giveaway.
• An adorable 5 or 6 year old girl who is just going to town at a sticker station at the table I am near. She is into her design and it’s so cute to watch.
• Two of my teammates taking video of the festivities.
• Some of our students are still in regular clothes, but have added a funny hat, a tiara, or a Halloween-themed headband.
• Great little kid costumes: a swashbuckling young boy, several princesses, a batgirl, a tiny leopard girl in a tutu, and a fantastic Queen of Hearts.
• Book-themed decorations all over the Quad: The Very Hungry Caterpillar, a giant Clifford the Big Red Dog banner (excellently done), the little boy on the cover of The Giving Tree. The students who did all these decorations are supertalented.
• A big white floofy Doodle dog in a costume. I can’t tell if it is a dragon or a dinosaur.
• What looks like a family on an admissions visit come up to the Quad. They have a campus map, a bag from the Deacon shop, and they are looking around like they can’t believe this is all going on. What a great impression to leave a visiting family with!
• Lots of colorful and creative games for the kids to play at various stations: a ball toss at bricks, feed the Very Hungry Caterpillar, a game with very large fake spiders, like tarantula size.
• A student dressed as the Disney princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. She is in a legitimate full ball gown costume, her hair in an updo, and she looks incredible. She wins my student costume of the day.
• The tiny leopard-girl dancing like no one was watching as the marching band played. She walked up tentatively towards the band and then starting raising her knees in that kind of hilarious dancing/marching/swaying that toddlers do. Adorable.
• A student host in an NFL jersey leading her pack of trick-or-treaters to the various activities.
• Administrators and colleagues I know – sometimes with their kids, which was great to see – sometimes in costume themselves. The grownups love to see/be a part of Project Pumpkin too!

I hear…

• “Ghostbusters” being played on the sound system at the front of Wait Chapel.
• A little girl saying “there’s a rabbit!” Not sure if she was referring to a costume or a decoration at one of the stations.
• “Monster Mash” on the sound system.
• Now it is the old Rockwell-Michael Jackson hit “Somebody’s Watching Me.” Not long after it was “Smooth Criminal” by Michael Jackson.
• A group of adorable kids saying a loud and hearty “hola!” as they walk up to a table.
• A student saying to all passersby at their table “Do you want to buy a t-shirt to benefit the Freedom School?”
• A student musical group singing on the stage in front of Wait Chapel. This group looks to be all women.
• A mom [I presume] calling after her kid “Come here!”
• Catchy doo-wop music from the sound system.
• Intense laughter as the students who are manning a ring-toss table get hit in the face with a ring. [The kids have to stand back and toss rings onto those bear-shaped bottles of honey. These are not hard rings. The student was fine – laughing actually.]
• Snippets of conversations from our students to the little kids: “So much fun!” “Did you get candy?” “You guys good?”
• Loud and raucous “YEAH!!!!”s from a group of male students as the little kids at their station won the game they were playing.
• The delighted reactions of kids stopping by our University Police truck to get their very own police badge stickers.
• Our marching band playing the fight song and other tunes. I overheard a student passing by during their performance who said to their friend “This makes me miss high school. I was in marching band…“

I smell…

• A sweetish smell. There are two little kids passing by with bowls and spoons, and I can see they have ice cream. I wander over to that station, and there are chemistry/science folks who are making ice cream; they have containers of heavy cream and some kind of freezing agent (I stunk at chemistry so I don’t know what they were using, and this had such a WOW factor that the table was very crowded and I did not want to take up space a kid might want).
• The smell of brown crunchy fall leaves on the ground.
• Crisp, clean fall air. No hint of tobacco leaves today, which is that quintessential Winston-Salem smell.

I taste…

• Skittles 🙂 I was chatting with some campus partners from another office at their table, and they invited me to grab a treat. Those Skittles were sweet, chewy, and delicious. (Thank you, campus office! You know who you are).

I feel…

• A cool breeze. Sometimes it gusts a bit – the wind was trying to blow off the tablecloth at one of the student organization’s tables as I walked by.
• Irrationally delighted to see a ton of bubbles blowing in front of Wait Chapel. There is a bubble machine over there, and it is cranking out lots of bubbles. I love bubbles.
• Amazement at the ice cream makers’ table. If today was a science fair, they would have gotten first place.
• The soft floof of the dog in the costume as I petted him. I finally couldn’t stand it any longer and went up to his owner and asked if he was a dragon or a dinosaur and if I could pet him. His delightful owner tells me that his name is Wiley and he is dressed as Wileysaurus Rex. I am smitten. He’s a great dog and very affectionate. I loved getting some kisses from him.
• Sympathy for a woman with her [I assume] child. The little kiddo seemed overtired or overwhelmed by all the activity, so mom had her sitting apart from the action at a cafe table and was talking in a soothing voice about whether the kiddo wanted to go to Chick fil A. I remember those days of having an overstimulated kid at Halloween – we have all been there, mom!
• An unexpected pang of longing when I walked past one of the decorations on the Quad. Propped against the lightpole was a lovely rendition of the book Goodnight Moon. How many of us read that story over and over to our babies and toddlers??? It took me back to those early parent days long ago, when the days are long but the years are short. Our kids grow up too quickly, don’t they?

That’s the Five Senses of Project Pumpkin. You can also view it in pictures via this terrific photostory (note: Wileysaurus Rex is pictured!).

Hope you felt like you were right there with us!