Miami celebrates the fall season with Fall Fest

The fall season is here, and Halloween is just around the corner. To celebrate this, Miami University held its annual Fall Fest on Oct. 19.

The Western Center, Honors College, Honors Student Advisory Board, Zero Waste Oxford and ResLife collaborated to put on this event.

To begin the evening, a pumpkin carving contest was held at Western Lodge from 6-8 p.m. There was hot apple cider, caramel apples and Halloween themed music.

Billy Simms, Western Center coordinator, and Jonathan James, assistant director for student engagement in the Honors College, were the co-visionaries for this portion of the event.

“Billy and I came together last year thinking about different ways that the Western Program, the Western Center more specifically … and the Honors College, how we could collaborate to really develop events that are high quality that students are going to benefit from,” James said.

The Western Center has traditionally held an event called West Fest in the spring, which is what inspired Fall Fest. James is looking forward to watching the event grow in upcoming years, including with more pumpkins and cider to account for more participants.

For Simms, the most rewarding part of this process is seeing everyone come together.

“It’s my favorite event of the year. I love it. It’s so much fun watching the kids have so much fun,” Simms said. “And the pumpkins are amazing.”

Chloe Thach, a senior biology, public health, neuroscience and individualized studies major, chose to attend Fall Fest because she enjoys Western’s events.

“It’s just fun to get in the fall mood,” Thach said. “I’m going to carve a pumpkin house. I’m just going to carve out a door and a window, and then I want to stick a mini pumpkin on the inside, walking out of the door.”

Another highlight of the evening was Helen’s Haunted Hall, located at Peabody Hall. Those in attendance were escorted to the fourth floor where they had to face a haunted room featuring balloon popping, screaming scare actors jumping out at the guests.

There were also treats and games for those interested, and a movie room where guests could watch “Halloweentown.”

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Helen’s Haunted Hall is held at Peabody Hall due to the history of the building, as well as the belief that it may be haunted by Helen Peabody, the first principal of Western College for Women.

Samantha Besel, a first-year biology and environmental science major, really enjoyed Helen’s Haunted Hall experience, though she isn’t really fazed by scary things.

“It was pretty entertaining with the Halloween aesthetic going on with the blood on the walls,” Besel said. “[The scariest part was] the scream because when someone suddenly screams it does kind of freak people out because you don’t expect it and it’s super loud. So I would think that’s the scariest part about it.”

In order to participate in the Halloween activities, attendees first had to walk through a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) presentation regarding cultural appropriation and Halloween costumes.

Thomas Keating, a second-year business undecided and Spanish major, is a resident assistant at Peabody Hall. Prior to his position, he volunteered to help with the DEI presentation last year.

“It’s a similar presentation to what we put on last year. It’s basically about cultural appropriation as it relates to Halloween costumes. We think it’s sort of timely because it is the Halloween season,” Keating said.

Keating said the goal of this presentation was to help keep people informed when they buy their costumes. Even for those who don’t believe in the Peabody legend, Keating says the experience is still worth it.

“The rumor has it that she has come back to the building to sort of continue the work that she started defending the women that live in this building from the Miami men,” Keating said. “Helen Peabody was a prominent woman and a prominent person in the history of women’s education in the United States. And so even if you don’t believe in all the spooky things, and you’re not into haunted halls, it’s still a very cool thing that we have this on Miami’s campus.”

powers40@miamioh.edu