By A. K. Miller
On September 15th Farmer hosted one of UPC’s most popular events: Stuff-a-Friend.
Stuff-a-Friend is an event that happens at least once every semester. Students began lining up to get their numbered ticket, a fairly recent crowd control method put in place and used by UPC, before the event’s official start time of 5:00pm.
Freshman student Emy Aiken commented, “The organization was really good with the numbered tickets that were handed out, it was sort of confusing at first but easy to catch on to what was going on.”
The waiting line stretched from the patio doors and wound up the stairs to the second floor of the building. UPC had tables set up on the Farmer stage that were covered in a wide variety of plushies, including squirrels, ducks, teddy bears and even winged unicorns, all waiting to be stuffed and adopted by the eager students. The atmosphere was a buzz of excitement from the glimpses of the available yet-to-be-stuffed animals as gentle music played in the background.
Part way through the event though there was an announcement made to the still growing crowd.
“We discovered probably about like 45 to 50 stuffed animals that were completely unaccounted for in our numbering system, so we had a surplus,” UM sophomore student and UPC Assistant Coordinator Caroline Coats explained.
During the process of preparation for the event, a box filled with stuffing and unstuffed animals had been overlooked but was found during the event, leading to the extra availability of some of the plushies.
“Sometimes when we have extra, people will go back for a second, they’re like ‘oh I want to get one for my girlfriend or I want to…my friend couldn’t make it, and I want to make sure that she can experience this too.’” Coats stated, showing how unexpected additional stuffed animals affect the attendees of the event.
In the hour that the event lasted, nearly two-hundred UM students participated in the stuffing of plushies.
“The event was different in how the music was not as loud as some other events have been and that allowed for genuine conversations and connections to be made,” Aiken stated.
Stuff-a-Friend is an event that allows for those connections. It gets students out of their dorms and interacting with peers and away from the stresses of studies.
“The stresses of college, there is a lot of stress in college, and sometimes it’s nice to just like leave your studying, leave your stress and other things, and do something so simple and like comforting as make a stuffed animal for yourself.” Coats said.
