News: Winston-Salem choir allows disabled adults to sing Page 7
Opinion: Drawbacks of the negative Sports: Deacs topple Louisville stigma behind mental illness Page 11 Page 9
Life: Wake Forest theatre debuts “Far Away” Page 16
Old Gold&Black WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916
VOL. 102, NO. 9
T H U R S DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 , 2 017 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
ReCycle gives a new purpose to forgotten bicycles Bike-sharing program allows students to get exercise and reduce their carbon footprint BY NICOLE LOFFREDO Staff Writer loffn16@wfu.edu
Escorts are student volunteers who, with a partner, supervise around four children. This provides a unique opportunity for Wake Forest students and elementary students to bond. “It’s a great way to get involved,” said Keighley Nemickas, steering cochair for Project Pumpkin. “It’s a low time commitment and you get to interact directly with the kids to really embody Pro Humanitate.” These volunteers are the face of Project Pumpkin and imperative to event safety. Over 300 escorts are responsible for ensuring that their assigned students are accounted for. Upon exiting the Chapel, escorts ask students whether they want to begin their loop of the quad to the right towards villains, or to the left towards heroes. Students and their escorts stop at booths they find interesting to collect candy and other goodies. About 80 percent of student organizations participated in Project Pumpkin by setting up different booths featuring everything from carnival games, to cookie decorating and canoe rides.
The Office of Sustainability has launched a bike-sharing program that few people seem to know about, but plenty of people have found. Alyshah Aziz, an intern for the Office of Sustainability, pitched and organized the idea for the ReCycle bike-sharing program last year. When Aziz envisioned the idea, she thought about students biking around campus on a nice fall day, cruising up Wake Forest Road, turning left on Reynolda Road, exploring all of Winston-Salem while getting exercise, enjoying the outdoors and not harming the environment. “[Aziz] identified a need for students and faculty to get around on campus in such a way that was accessible, and specifically to the office, ‘green,’” said Emily Claire Mackey, the ReCycle Bike-share intern. In a 2015 study done by the EPA, 27 percent of the total U.S. Greenhouse gas emissions were caused by transportation. Passenger cars were the largest contributor. As a result of statistics like these, there has been a nationwide movement toward alternative forms of transportation, such as biking. The creation of bike-sharing programs is a new trend that can be found in almost every city. The company Zagster, recently installed in WinstonSalem, is a service that will bring a fleet of bikes to a college campus or city. Bike users check out the bikes and use them to their convenience, tracking the whole thing through an app. This company puts a modern and virtual spin on original city sponsored bike-sharing services such as Citi Bikes. These type of services have been popping up around the country in a hopeful effort to reduce gas emissions. ReCycle began with a fleet of bikes rescued on campus by University Police. These bikes were forgotten and abandoned by their owners or locked to bike racks long enough to warrant their removal. Previously, the bikes would have been donated to charities but Aziz had the idea to fix the bikes and allow Wake
See Project Pumpkin, Page 4
See Bike-sharing, Page 6
©WFU/Mitchell Loll
This year’s Project Pumpkin theme was Heroes vs. Villains. About 550 WinstonSalem children, many of them from underprivileged backgrounds, attended the event.
Project Pumpkin turns 29 Since 1988, the children of Winston-Salem have gathered on the quad for treats and games BY KELLIE SHANAGHAN Staff Writer shanke15@wfu.edu On Wednesday, Oct. 25, over 550 children arrived on campus to delight in an array of candy, crafts and carnival games as part of the 29th annual Project Pumpkin. “[This event] is truly providing a fun Halloween experience for elementary students and Wake Forest students to celebrate together,” said Head Pumpkin Mariana Linares. Project Pumpkin is the beloved annual Halloween celebration on Hearn Plaza which hosts hundreds of kids ranging from kindergarten through eighth grade for an afternoon of festive activities and trick-or-treating. As Wake Forest’s oldest philanthropic event, it provides a safe environment for local kids to enjoy Halloween and facilitates an environment for Wake Forest students to connect with the Winston-Salem community. In 1988, the original Head Pumpkin,
Libby Bell, founded Project Pumpkin with friends from her freshman hall, Bostwick 2B, wanted to make a difference in the community. According to Wake Forest Magazine, about 125 local children attended that first year. Costumed students took children trick-or-treating in Bostwick and Johnson. In following years, Project Pumpkin expanded to include all South Campus dorms. It was moved to the quad in 1995, where it has been held ever since. “Thinking about it as an adult now, I don’t know how we made it happen,” Bell said in a 2013 interview for Wake Forest Magazine. “It’s a testament to Wake Forest; I don’t think that could have happened at very many other schools.” Project Pumpkin is now a beloved tradition and the largest student-service project at Wake Forest. This year’s theme was Heroes vs. Villains, with Hearn Plaza split into two corresponding sides. Colored streamers draped the trees, a jovial parallel to the rolling of the quad and cardboard cut outs of icons like Wonder Women and the Joker decorated the event. Children arrived on school buses beginning at 3 p.m. They were checked in at Wait Chapel before being to paired with an escort.