AUDIO SLIDE SHOW: Odd Holiday Olympics

Like many University students around this time of the semester, sophomore Jessica Delgado is feeling the stress of upcoming finals. She chose to relieve the stress by making paper snowflakes and decorating cookies in the Union last night.

Delgado attended the Outrageously Odd Holiday Olympics hosted by the Homegrown Planning team, sponsored by the University Activities Organization.

There were seven stations at the event, including five competitive events. The competitive events included decorating a Christmas tree, naming holiday songs, making paper snowflakes, answering holiday trivia and decorating cookies.

“I liked the trivia best because I won!” Delgado said.

The winner of each round was determined by who could finish the fastest. Each winner received stamps to turn in after they were done competing.

Homegrown Events Director Catherine Lewis said the main purpose of the event was to help students have holiday fun and relieve stress during finals time.

“It gives students something to do during stressful times,” Lewis said. “It’s a good opportunity before break to have fun and win prizes to possibly give away as presents.”

Freshmen Andrea Davis and Andrea Mihalko were the first two to arrive and they started by coloring holiday pictures, one of the tables not a part of the competition.

“We were in the Union and with [the] last week of finals coming up, [we] decided to come and take a little break and have some holiday fun,” Davis said.

Along with coloring holiday pictures, making candy cane reindeers were the two activities not a part of the Olympic activities. Sparkly red, green and gold pipe cleaners and sequins were some of the things provided for the craft-making.

“The reindeer were a lot of fun to make,” said Brandy Rosebrock of the Homegrown Planning team. “I made several at home!”

Everyone who came to participate had a chance to do the activities as much as they wanted and seemed to have a fun time doing it. By the end of the night, it was clear it was more about the fun than the competition.

“She [Davis] won everything,” Mihalko said. “Except the Christmas tree decorating – I won that!”

“I didn’t come here for the prizes,” Davis added. “I came here to have fun!”

After students accumulated their stamps, they turned them in depending on how many they received. Participants with three stamps qualified for the bronze medal, four stamps qualified for the silver medal and five stamps qualified for the gold medal. Winners were picked at random through each box and prizes included an iTunes giftcard and University Bookstore giftcard.

“We wanted it to be as many people just stopping by through the night, so it’s been a success,” Lewis said.