Walking through the Dudley Courtyard on Friday, Oct. 25, students were surrounded by hundreds of intricately carved pumpkins, part of Auburn University's College of Architecture, Design and Construction 25th Annual Pumpkin Carve.
The courtyard was home to more than 400 pumpkins Friday, ranging from a detailed version of Van Gough's "Starry Night" to simple phrases such as "War Eagle."
The Pumpkin Carve began 25 years ago as an architecture studio project. The original idea was to invite students to design interesting and beautiful pumpkin carvings.
"The Pumpkin Carve soon took on a life of its own as it became bigger each year and as the community began to come out more and more to see the students' pumpkins," said Adam Levet, senior in interior architecture. Levet is also the vice president of internal affairs of the Auburn chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students.
The AIAS decided to host and organize the event with other student organizations that participate. Other groups set up booths where they sell different items such as T-shirts, hot cider and snacks.
Pumpkin Carve is the biggest fundraiser for AIAS and raises thousands of dollars per year to send students to conferences.
"I love supporting my school anyway I can, especially for a fundraiser like this," said Wheat Holt, junior in public relations. "There are so many ways for students to get involved and help the community and this is just a small way of showing my appreciation."
The Pumpkin Carve was not just for Auburn architecture students. Families brought their children to the event to carve pumpkins or walk around and see what all the event had to offer.
"One of our foremost goals in organizing Pumpkin Carve is to bring the community in to both celebrate with them and to show them what we can do as students," Levet said.
The Dudley Courtyard was decorated with lights, fake spiderwebs and chalk drawings to lead the public to the event while fall music played. Pumpkins were sold for $5 and many different T-shirts and raffles were available for visitors to purchase.
The Jack-O'-lanterns were displayed throughout Dudley Hall courtyard, perched on walls of tires for all to see. A chili cook-off took place at 5 p.m. and the pumpkins were lit and judged at 6 p.m.
The carved pumpkins were judged on creativity, appearance and craftmanship. Auburn University President Jay Gogue and two architecture professors, Tarik Orgen and Scott Finn were the judges of the competition.
Children attended the event dressed in their best costumes, waiting for the kid's costume competition at 6:30 p.m. Students from all majors attended the event.
"It was a really fun fall activity to do with friends," Erika Francks, senior in chemistry, said. "Except for the fact it was -5 degrees."
For more photos from the event, visit our photo gallery: http://www.theplainsman.com/pages/multimedia_photos
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