Cook festival offers family fun

On Forest lawn, with the fitting backdrop of fall trees with leaves of various hues, sit six tables. The first is for cider donuts. If, however, eating a donut off a table is not good enough, there are donuts hanging from strings on the trees behind the table. The second is for apple cider — both hot and cold. The third is set up for pumpkin carving. The fourth is for dipping caramel apples, and the fifth is for pie eating. The sixth is an information table set up by Middlebury’s Sustainability Council. And, at the focus of it all, is a band.
The event is the Cook Fall Family Festival.
Each year during family weekend, Cook Commons puts on an event to celebrate fall and welcome the weekend’s guests.
“It’s cute,” said Megan Nesbeth ’11. “It’s nice that they do the event every single year.”
Attendees of the event could move from table to table, enjoying different fall-themed food and activities. The pumpkin-carving table was particularly popular, where students created pumpkin masterpieces with their families and friends. While the pie table was originally set up to be a pie-eating contest, lack of interest allowed everyone to simply eat the pies. The Brooker Liquor Cooperative played music for the event.

The band includes five members: Natty Smith ’10.5, Elias Alexander ’12, Chloe Dautch ’13, Parker Woodworth ’13.5 and Matt Ball ’14.

“Last year, we were a bunch of friends who just enjoyed playing music together,” Woodworth said.

This year, they’ve begun booking more gigs.

“[Alexander] has a propensity for booking gigs and then telling us that we’re playing them after,” Woodworth joked.

In addition to providing fun and entertainment for its guests, the event also strove to provide information about new environmental initiatives at the College.

“We have a booth to tell people about Residential Sustainability Coordinators for Cook Commons,” said Cook Commons RSC Leslie Reed ’14. “Each commons has four first year RSCs and one head RSC. We want to promote green practices in the dorms and encourage people to live sustainable lifestyles.”

Many RSC activities are led by or are centered around first-years.

“There’s a focus on first-years because we want to instill good dorm-life practices that can last for all four years at Middlebury, and hopefully beyond,” she continued.

Between the food, the games, the music and the education, the event provided a pleasant way for students, families and friends to spend a couple of hours outside, enjoying the festivities and the fall.