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Falling in love with fall in Florida

November 03, 2008

Over the last several years at Rollins I have grown to love the fall season in Florida. Talk about perfect weather – you can’t beat an average of 76 degrees, sunny, and no humidity. Yet it gets about 15 degrees cooler at night so you can unpack the “winter clothes” and wear your favorite sweatshirt, jeans and boots. However, during my first year at Rollins I absolutely hated this part of the year. I was so used to the weather dropping in September, the leaves turning colors, and praying for snow days back in Wisconsin. When the temperature stayed the same (hot) and the leaves didn’t change, yet people started decorating their houses with Christmas lights, I felt like time wasn’t moving. I loved school, my friends and the activities I was involved with on campus, but I missed home and was ready for at least Thanksgiving break.

Now that I have been in Florida for many years, I have come to love the fall. Fall means Halloween, fall themed events, Halloween Howl, Hunger Banquet and all sorts of great events on campus. Last weekend was Halloween weekend and ACE hosted its second Rollins After Dark event. It was again a huge success! Instead of being in Dave’s Down Under this month, we hosted the event right on Mills Lawn. There was a huge inflatable laser tag, sponsored by the Alumni Association, in the middle of lawn right next to the inflatable screen that was playing the movie Scream, a classic Halloween time movie!

As always there was also a free breakfast buffet, this time consisting of scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon, hash browns, assorted pastries, and Halloween cupcakes! In addition to the buffet, there was a caramel apple making station, which included every imaginable topping!! Also, there were several games played including bobbing for apples, donut on a string competitions, and of course a costume competition with prizes for the winners. Throughout the night students continued to show up with their friends decked out in the Halloween costumes ready to have a great time!

One of my other favorite Halloween events is Halloween Howl, which is an annual event hosted at Rollins College for all children of the community. Almost every organization on campus sponsors a table at the event and the kids get to spend the afternoon participating in activities, making their way through haunted houses, and trick-or-treating at every table. This year All Campus Events (ACE) helped sponsor two inflatables, one designed for younger kids filled with tunnels, slides, obstacles, and a jump zone. The other inflatable had a bouncing area, basketball hoop, obstacle course, rock climbing wall and a slide. The kids had an absolute blast!

Throughout the event I floated back and forth from the ACE inflatables to the table set up by the American Student Dental Association (ASDA). This year ASDA had hundreds of tooth brushes, toothpaste, and dental floss donated from Dr. Mark Sisko and Dr. Michael Morgan, a Rollins alumni, to give away to the kids. This way every child has a new toothbrush and toothpaste to use to brush their teeth with after indulging in the massive amounts of Halloween candy! We also had a plaque detecting mouthwash that we allowed each child to try which temporarily stains your teeth blue where there is a build up of plaque. It is an excellent way for kids to see where they need to be spending more time brushing their teeth to ensure that they get rid of the plaque in their mouths.

Now it’s time to prepare for the Uncle Sam’s After Poll Party, sponsored by We Tackle the Future at Rollins, this week to celebrate the Election Day. Almost 20 different organizations are contributing to the event to help make it as successful as possible! There is going to be a ton of food, fun and games for everyone!

Perhaps my favorite part about the fall season in Florida is not necessarily the perfect weather, but the ton of events that happen on campus due to the collaboration of so many organizations. Between Rollins After Dark, Halloween Howl, Uncle Sam’s After Poll Party, Dance Marathon, Hunger Banquet and many more, almost every organization on campus is collaborating with other organizations to make the most successful events possible.

Without the help and teamwork of everyone, these events could never happen! Seeing that this is my last year at Rollins I am truly going to miss being so involved in all of these events! I hope next year I can continue reading about the events through next year’s R-journalists!

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