Children and adults can often celebrate holidays very differently, so family inclusive events are in high demand. The APSU Little Govs Child Learning Center helped provide another point for children and parents to meet in the middle with their first annual Pumpkin Patch held Wednesday, Oct. 26.
The children, parents, grandparents and anyone who wanted to accompany them came to the Sexton building at 2:30 p.m. The employees filled the playground with pumpkins, toy horses and toys to play with and a place for the students to get their faces painted.
Each child had to pick out a pumpkin, take it home, and decorate it with their families as a bonding activity. By the pumpkin patch rules, the pumpkins could not be carved. The children were supposed to bring their pumpkins back Friday, Oct. 28 for a small competition for prizes.
“We converted the playground into a pumpkin patch. There’s an area for face-painting and there’s also an area for them to paint a class pumpkin. They have some activities going on outside. The goal is to have a family event and we have a lot of moms and dads and grandmas,” Director of APSU Little Govs Child Learning Center Claudia Rodriguez said.
On top of the activities in the playground, the assistant director of the physical plant, Wes Powell, brought a tractor to pull along the children in hayrides. The families went back and forth from the playground taking turns on the ride.
Some student workers participated, helping children on and off the wagons throughout the event.
“We have student workers that are volunteering for the event. Some that are just assisting getting kids on the wagons and stuff like that. We have some helping with face-painting, and the pumpkin decoration,” Rodriguez said.
Around 4 or 4:30 p.m., the workers cleaned up the event to make way for the rest of the Child Learning center’s other events coming up in the future, like their Fall Carnival held on Halloween.
The Carnival was an event meant for the kids, so they could dress up and get candy for playing the games set up in the playground instead of trick-or-treating. The pumpkin patch, however, was a fall event that all members of the family could participate in.
