larsonjt2@lopers.unk.edu

Last week the Art and Design Department and the College of Arts and Sciences held a pumpkin carving competition. The organizers of the event, which was open to both students and staff, requested students bring items for the Loper Pantry in order to participate.

The gathering provided students an opportunity to celebrate Halloween with their friends while embracing their artistic sides and still adhering to social distancing guidelines.

“Being in the art program, it’s really fun to see everybody else who you don’t have classes with,” said Grace Pistulka, a junior graphic design major. “It’s also a great opportunity for non-art majors to be creative, meet new people, and express themselves through pumpkins.”  

The categories for the judging of the pumpkins are best in show, most creative, and ugliest. The prizes for the winners of these categories are $300 for best in show, $200 for most creative, and $100 for the ugliest. 

Students were able to vote on which pumpkin was the best in the three categories.

“Over here, everyone is being safe,” said Sam Hayes, a senior majoring in visual communications and design. “Everyone is wearing a mask, staying a good distance apart, but still where we can see what each other are working on and show off our stuff to other people as well. I think despite what is going on, it’s still important to come together at the school- safely of course. Otherwise we risk degrading the community that our school has.”

The food collected at the event will go to the Loper Pantry.

“The Loper Pantry provides food for our students on campus,” said Ryan Teten, dean of the College of Arts and Science. “What we have found is that there are at least 15% of students who go to bed without having enough to eat and at least 5% who are actually living in their cars. This is an attempt to help our students as much as possible.”

The Loper Pantry is open to any student who is hungry or food insecure. It provides dry goods- everything from ramen, cereals, soups as well as other supplies.

Teten says that this event is just one way that students can help the less fortunate.

“This is just one of the events that is happening around the year,” Teten said. “Dr. Peter Longo is organizing an event for Grand Island to be able to give away new children’s books to children out there as we are starting to expand to offer classes in Grand Island. This is just a thing that happens around the year every chance we have to give back we try to do that.”