Exonians Celebrate Autumn at Fall Fair

Last Monday, students left their H format classes, crossed Front Street to Elm Street Dining and grabbed a fistful of kettle corn. To kick off the seventh week of classes, the Academy exempted students from Q format to enjoy a new Fall Fair.With a great amount of effort and planning from various departments and committees, several faculty members worked to create a fun event for students on campus. Interim Assistant Director of the Principal’s Office Leigh Drapeau commented on the inspiration for the Fall Fair. “Every other weekend you'll find that there's a big fall fair happening somewhere in New England, but you guys may not get a chance to get to them,” she said. Instead of having to travel, she explained, “we thought it was kind of a cool idea to bring some of that to you.”Student Activities, the Deans’ office and Dining Services collaborated with the Principal’s Office to bring the campus fair to fruition. “One of our party vendors that helps Student Activities quite often is bringing skee-ball games and stuff like that,” Drapeau continued. “Inside [of Elm Street Dining Hall] they were serving some food … anything that you might find at a fair, like the fried chicken, corn dogs and fried dough.”Students received the various aspects of the fair with excitement. “There's a lot of typical American food,” upper Hassane Fiteni said. “It was fried macaroni and it was really good. There was also some nice kettle corn and s'mores, so this has been really tasty.”Senior Phoebe Weil also appreciated the fair’s activities. “I love the little fairy lights. I think the vibe is very cute,” she said. Weil further added, “It's very fall [and] making me feel excited for Halloween.”Not only were there fall-themed snacks and carnival games, but the event also provided several pumpkins for students to carve and place around campus. “It was really fun to carve pumpkins because it was something I probably wouldn’t have chosen to do on my own or set time on my own to do,” upper Katie Moon said. Fiteni agreed with her, saying, “I like the pumpkin carving. I feel like we don't value art as much as we should. It can be fun, but we don't usually have time.”As half of the term has passed and many major assignments loom ahead, students appreciated the time taken out of the schedule for a community-wide fair. “I think it’s really great that the school is trying to give us these opportunities to try new things,” upper Emma Reach said. “It’s really relaxing, and I feel like sometimes people need to be forced to have fun at Exeter.”Weil shared her sentiments, adding, “ I think it's really nice to de-stress, especially as a senior.” She continued to recognise the amount of work that the senior class in particular has during the fall term, and was grateful for the break. “This is a really stressful time for me. So I'm feeling really, really happy that I got some time to de-stress,” she said.“I'm usually going back to my room and working for hours. Now, I’m taking 30 minutes out of my day to have some fun and all of that,” Fiteni noticed. “I really appreciate us actually getting off class for this. It made my day better to have Q off and a free a couple of weeks ago [during the Pancake Breakfast with Head Chef Pierre Gignac].”School officials had hopes for the event to provide a space of relaxation for students. “Honestly, our only real goal was to give you a little bit of fun. That's all,” Drapeau said. With the Pancake Breakfast with Gignac and the Fall Fair, the Academy has been making strides to create more time for students to enjoy activities on campus and appreciate their time here. “You guys work hard,” Drapeau added. “you deserve all of this … [and] we wanted to do something a little special.”