 "Photo: Aigerim Kulseitova/O’Collegian")
Games, families and chili filled the Payne County Expo Center Tuesday night to celebrate OSU’s annual Harvest Carnival and Chili Cook-off.
The event is one of the many traditions the OSU Alumni Association coordinates to celebrate OSU’s Homecoming. It was held from 6 p.m. to 8 and was open to students, families and children.
Blaine Bertrem, a psychology senior and carnival attendee, said she thinks the carnival is a great way to show off OSU’s school spirit.
“I think why OSU’s homecoming is one of the best homecomings in the nation is because of the community involvement. All of the other communities aren’t as involved in their homecoming; Stillwater is OSU and OSU is Stillwater,” she said.
Residential Life groups, Greek organizations and student organizations created games for the event to compete for points toward Homecoming awards.
Harvest Carnival Steering Chair Andrea Lee said the game’s overall appeal, how it related to the Homecoming theme, “Branded For Life,” creativity, and how they appealed to the children and community are all aspects the judges take into consideration.
The ranking of the competition will be announced at the Homecoming and Hoops spirit rally Friday night.
However, the carnival was more than just a competition.
As more children filed into the Expo Center to show off their Halloween costumes and play the games, more food was donated to Harvest II food bank in Stillwater.
The entry fee for the carnival was one canned food item per person, and Harvest Carnival Homecoming Executive team member Jill Bowman, said the carnival is a great way to support the local food bank.
“Our goal is just to make sure that the kids have a good time, and that Harvest II gets what they need. A lot of people depend on the food that we get here at the Harvest Carnival,” she said.
The Chili Cook-off, which is held in conjunction with the Harvest Carnival, gave student groups a chance to see who could make the best chili.
First place winner of the Residential Life category, Katie McClung, said she really enjoyed her first-year experience.
“I like interacting with the people,” said McClung, who represented the Villages. I really liked explaining to them my chili and getting to see the judges walk by. I will probably do it again next year now that I won.”
McClung said she got half of her winning recipe from a book and made the other half with her own spices and what she wanted to use.
Although some people were creative, others chose to stick with past recipes.
People’s choice winner, Dell Farris of Alpha Zeta, an honorary agriculture fraternity, said they used a recipe that has won people’s choice the past three years.
Second place in the Residential Life category was a tie between Kamm Peterson-Friend and Patchin -Jones.
As for the student organization category, Agriculture Communicators of Tomorrow went home with first, second place went to Animal Science Leadership Alliance and Block and Bridle received third place.
Despite the competitions, OSU students and Stillwater residents came to the carnival to give back to the community and celebrate Homecoming together.
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