Trevor Clarke, a senior in industrial design, paints Samford Hall: for Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity Sunday in the Painting the Streets event sponsored by SGA. The fraternity won first place in the spirit points division of the event. Katie Williams / PHOTO STAFF
Organizations gathered under the street lights and transformed the black asphalt into a kaleidoscope of colors at the inaugural Painting the Streets event Nov. 2.
This event, sponsored by the Student Government Association, officially kicked off Homecoming Week on the Auburn campus.
Painting the Streets took place from 9 p.m. to midnight Sunday at the corner of Duncan Drive between the football stadium and the Student Center.
Rachel Pegues, a junior in communications, is the SGA director of Homecoming activities. She said the purpose of this event is to increase Auburn spirit around campus.
“We just want all of the organizations to get involved in the new tradition to help spread the Auburn spirit during Homecoming,” Pegues said.
“We want to make Homecoming a bigger deal.”
Trevor Clarke, a senior in industrial design, worked on a painting of Samford Hall for the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity. He said he thinks the Painting the Streets event is a good idea.
“I think it’s a good way to show Auburn spirit,” Clarke said, “and a good way for Greek organizations to get out and compete and show their spirit.”
While there was no set overall theme to the paintings, Pegues said they must contain elements associated with Homecoming and the Auburn spirit.
Every organization that entered the competition received 50 spirit points, and some organizations received more.
“The winner gets 250 spirit points on top of that (50 points), second place gets 200 spirit points, and third place gets 150,” Pegues said.
There were some limitations and restrictions that each group had to abide by while participating in this event. They were only allowed to use tempera paint to paint in a sectioned off 8-by-8-foot square.
Pegues said the organizations had to provide their own tempera paint, and those supplies could be found at local stores.
The painting will be available for viewing through the Homecoming game Saturday.
Pegues said the SGA chose the section of Duncan, because it could be easily viewed by students and other visitors as they make their way to the stadium to watch the game.
Auburn isn’t the only school in the SEC with the event.
“We know that Georgia does that, and it’s a huge tradition there,” Pegues said. “So we were trying to bring something more to Auburn.”
Abby Chandler, a sophomore in education, helped paint a fleur de lys street design for the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. She hopes this event will turn into an annual event at Auburn.
“I think it’s a fun idea,” Chandler said. “I hope it stays, because it’s been fun hanging out with everyone and seeing everyone else’s ideas.”
The paintings were judged during the morning of Nov. 3. Pegues said the paintings were judged on relation to Homecoming, overall appearance and creativity.
The winners in the spirit points division were Pi Kappa Alpha in first place, Farm House in second and Pi Beta Phi in third.
The winners in the non spirit points division were the Black Student Union in first place, the College of Agriculture Student Council in second and the Agricultural Communicators of Tomorrow/National Agri-Marketing Association in third.
A total of 34 organizations signed up to compete in the event.
Other Homecoming activities included “Sack the Skyhawks” Day Nov. 3, the Homecoming Candidate Kickoff on Nov. 3, the Student Center parade and dedication Nov. 5 and the ODK Cake Race Nov. 5.
The Student Alumni Association’s annual “Shrimp Boil” will be from 6-9 p.m. tonight on the Nichols Center lawn.
Tiger Night’s will be “Under the Big Top” tomorrow from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. at the Student Center.
Kickoff against Tennessee-Martin will be at 1:30 p.m., and the announcement of Miss Homecoming will be during halftime of the game.
SGA will sell Homecoming T-shirts for $10 throughout the week.
