The Daily Campus

Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: Focus

Media Credit: Matt Lin Bill Sciturro, the Dairy Plant manager, makes ice cream during Cornucopia Fest Sunday.

Despite dreary weather there was a large turnout yesterday at UConn's Cornucopia Fest. The festival was held in the Young building quad, with activities also occurring in the UConn Dairy Bar and the Horse Barn Hill Arena. There were countless tent exhibits, ranging from an allied health sciences table to a hands-on wood chopping area, overlooked by the Timber sports team.

"Most majors related to agriculture have booths going on," said Sam Robinson, a 3rd-semester natural resources management and engineering major.

Kendra Bow, a 7th-semester allied health sciences major agreed and noted, "this festival is a great opportunity to spread information about agriculture."

Families from all around the area came and enjoyed this family weekend activity. Jen Ritchie's family, from Rocky Hill, came to watch the exhibition polo match held in the Horse Barn Hill Arena, as well as enjoy dairy bar ice cream, which was Ricky Ritchie's (Jen's son's) favorite part of their outing.

Getting ice cream seemed to be a popular activity, especially since the Dairy Bar was giving tours, but by no means was it the only thing to do.

Joe Keller, a 3rd-semester biology major, brought his whole family to the festival. "It's a great event to bring the family too." Keller said as he, his parents and his younger sister Colleen browsed the many booths in the Young Building quad.

Other popular booths for families included the UConn poultry science club, which had a live chicken that children were lining up to pet. The Sigma Alpha table was also popular for its pet-a-sheep and seed planting activities.

One of the highlights of Cornucopia Fest was the horticulture show. The UConn horticulture club was selling a myriad of plants, as well as a cider and caramel apples. They even had a putting green set up, decorated with plants all around.

The theme of environmental conservation seemed prevalent throughout the festival. There was an electric car booth set up. Even the Timber sports team, an on campus organization that competes in lumberjack sports, was trying to do their part to conserve.

Cory Christians, a 6th-semester psychology major, explained that the Timber sports team "is trying to correspond with another on campus organization to use the wood chips [created by the team's activities] as mulch…and the large pieces of wood are chopped to make firewood."

Overall, there definitely was no shortage of things to do at Cornucopia Fest. The weather held out, allowing students and their families to enjoy ice cream, shopping for flowers, chopping wood, petting animals and plenty of informational booths.

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