The D.P. Culp Student Center hosted a pumpkin painting event on Oct. 21 to bring students together and help them mingle safely.

“We are trying to promote student engagement since most of the time we are doing the remote learning,” said Lindsey Rogers, an operation supervisor for the Culp Center. “We just want to find a way to bring the students together during this time.”

Rogers said the event was planned to help students relieve stress while also helping them to safely mingle in person.

“We were also thinking that usually in the fall there’s a lot of events that are planned for freshmen to mingle and get to know each other, but with COVID-19 going on there really hasn’t been many events that are able to happen,” said Brooke Hunt, another operation supervisor for the Culp Center. “So, we thought maybe this would be good chance for undergrad people to meet other freshmen so they could bond a little bit.”

(Photo by Madison Taylor/ East Tennessean)

Many of the event’s attendees said they decided to participate because they love the seasonal nature of the event.

“I love getting out of my room to attend fall-related activities,” said Adrienne O’Dell.

Other attendees said being able to safely interact in person is what brought them to the event.

“My boredom finally got me out of my dorm room,” said Grace Brooks.

Amanda Duffy, who also attended the event, echoed Brooks statement.

“I was finally able to get out of quarantine a little bit during this event,” said Duffy.

The pumpkins painted during the event were aquired from Laurel’s Pumkin Barn in Johnson City, and the event was paid for by the Division of Student Life and Enrollment.

To learn more about future events hosted by the Culp Center, follow @etsu_culp on Instagram.