brownc4@lopers.unk.edu

Last week, students took a break from the grind in a fun way. The LPAC Build-A-Bear Event offered students a chance to make their own stuffed animals to take home.

Hannah Higgins, the LPAC Loper event chairperson,  was instrumental in the event’s organization . 

“We were definitely not expecting it to be that popular, but we are very grateful that it was,” Higgins said. “It was really great to see that something we did made students happy, and I love to see all the UNK students come out and participate in something like that.”

At the Build-A-Bear Event, students had the opportunity to stuff a variety of animals including bears, sloths, cows, elephants and reindeer.

When LPAC members were brainstorming ideas for this semester’s activities, they decided to move in the direction of having more interactive events in an effort to get more student participation. 

LPAC members knew this event would draw a crowd, but nothing prepared them for what they encountered. 

Held at the Nebraskan Student Union, the Build-A-Bear Event was supposed to take place over two days, but due to its popularity, it was condensed to one day. They ran out of certain animals just two hours into the event, and the crowd was so large throughout the entire time that they extended it by an hour.

The event was organized over the summer, and LPAC encountered some minor setbacks including delays, a wrong shipping address and even shipping services mistakenly believing the products were real animal skins. Despite those issues, LPAC was still able to put on a memorable event.

Kelsi Woodard, a sophomore psychology major, enjoyed making her stuffed animal.

“It was a nice change of pace just because we’ve been really stressed,” Woodard said. “It was actually really fun and kind of brought us back to our childhoods and gave us something to be excited about.”

LPAC purchased supplies for 800 animals and went through almost 700 in just one day.

Since it was so popular and many students did not have a chance to participate, LPAC will hold the Build-A-Bear Event again next semester.