The university’s Campus Activities Board (CAB) hosted their annual stuffed animal making event last week on Tuesday.
Dozens of students lined up outside of the Schneider North conference room in the Harry C. Moores Student Union and waited for the event to start. The line trailed past the One Main Cafe entrance and the bookstore.
As soon as students checked in, another long line was formed for students to choose their desired animal from a variety of options: cats, dogs, elephants, giraffes and many more. Even aliens were featured, but due to popular demand, they ran out quickly.
Some students wanted to make more than one animal, but due to the number of students and lack of supplies to accommodate more animal stuffing, CAB made sure the limit was one per person so everyone had a chance to stuff at least one animal.
Every table had bags of stuffing placed in the middle for students to take and stuff their animals as they pleased. Many students came in large friend groups and filled the seats of each table; there were hardly any chairs left, which resulted in some students sitting on the floor instead.
Abbey Palmer, a first-year integrated science and education double major, said she was glad the university was doing an event like this, as it was her first time indulging in the yearly tradition.
“It’s a lot of fun, getting to come to events and doing stuff with friends,” said Palmer, who had chosen a rabbit for her first animal.
Leah Nethers, a senior theater and communications double major, said she made a stuffed pig her freshman year at the university. The pig was one of the only options left the time she did it, which proved the popularity of the event each year.
“I had more choices this time as opposed to one pig left,” said Nethers. “Now, I’m currently making a little rabbit.”
Nethers’s rabbit had not been named yet, but her first-year piggle had been named “Oinkers.”
“My cousin had named his Webkinz that [Oinkers] when he was younger,” said Nethers. “It was really cute [because] he would drag it with him everywhere, and I was thinking of him so I decided to name it [Oinkers too].”
Stuffing the animals was easy, but sometimes closing them shut was a struggle. Some students required assistance from the event organizers so their animal’s “guts” were not spilling out everywhere.
Shortly after, people began to file out of the room as quickly as they had filed in. Many left as soon as they were done with their animal, filling it with stuffing and picking out a name, but some decided to linger to talk with friends and take pictures.
CAB holds this event every year, so if interested, students can look out for next year’s announcement on the CORQ app to avoid missing the chance to create a stuffed animal.
