By Ellen Kibbe
Contributing Writer
As the temperatures lower and the air becomes crisp with the scent of fall, students don’t have to pack away their fun with summer clothes. St. Bonaventure and the community have a great selection of events to keep the enthusiasm going even as the temperature on the thermometer drops.
Bus trips to Ellicottville will run every Saturday and leave campus at noon and 2:45 p.m. Students can walk around the quaint village of Ellicottville or go to nearby Holiday Valley to view the fall foliage before the snow covered slopes are packed with skiers.
Pumpkinville, minutes away from Ellicotville, is a great place to enjoy the benefits of fall in rural New York. Pumpkinville is open to visitors every day from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. until Oct. 31. Among other attractions, students can complete a corn maze, pick their own pumpkins from the patch, visit the cider mill, ride around in a hay wagon, experience the corn cannon and appreciate the changing leaves in personal helicopter rides.
Ellicottville also offers haunted hayrides every weekend in October. Along with a scary hayride, students can prepare to have nightmares after the haunted chamber, a new attraction this season. If students can survive all of the horrors, there is a cook shack with snacks at the end of the ride. Alexa Zak, a freshman biology major, explained the terror.
“It was definitely scary enough, and it’s just a great activity for a group of friends,” Zak said.
Ellicotville will host a Halloween-themed 5k and half marathon on Nov. 1. Deck out in your Halloween costume, and come enjoy some fun exercise. The race start time is 11 a.m. There will also be a costume contest to follow as well as refreshments.
However, students don’t have to leave campus to experience Halloween. The Hickey Dining hall is decked out in spooky décor and caldrons. The food options include all of students’ favorite fall treats such as pumpkin pie and apples with hot caramel. CAB sponsored a pumpkin painting event last weekend, so there are many painted pumpkins to brighten up the dorm rooms.
“It was fun to decorate my first dorm room for Halloween,” Zak said.
Many students are considering trick-or-treating themselves on Halloween night. Two freshman, Morgan Soule, a physical education major, and Carlie Jacque, an early childhood education major, have already bought costumes in anticipation of the big day.
“I’m especially excited to go this year because it will be fun to hang out with my new college friends,” Soule said.
Jacque and Soule both aim to bring back a lot of candy.
“We’re both small, so I think we will be able to pass as younger than we are,” Jacque said.
Bona Buddies will trick-or-treat through campus dorms on Oct. 28, so buy candy for the youngsters now. Students should contact resident assistants for more details.
