This week Mercyhurst’s Campus Involvement Center is spreading Alcohol Awareness throughout campus.

There will be several events in the Student Union Great Room all week long providing students with activities as alternatives to drinking.

On Thursday, there will be Peer Educators Pledge Signing as well as the main event, referred to as “Don’t be a Drunken Pumpkin.” The event will include pumpkin painting, costume contests and prizes. On Friday there will be various events including Harry Potter Revealed, a Halloween Party and a Haunted Club Hockey Game.

Kristy Jamison, Leadership & Outreach Coordinator for Campus Involvement Center, said the upcoming activities will not be conventional.

“‘Don’t be a Drunken Pumpkin’ is not just a come and hang out event like a normal weekend programming event would be like. We will have an adult-sized tricycle and beer goggles from Residence Life, so there will be an obstacle course that students can put on the goggles and ride the tricycle around and kind of get an idea of what driving under the influence could be like,” Jamison said.

Jamison added that there would be “plenty of food” for students in attendance.

Michael Grasso, Assistant Director for Residence Life & Student Conduct, believes this year will be a huge success after seeing such positive results last year.

“In previous years, we tried to have a lot of little events and we had some people come to them, but last year we tried to revamp it so we came up with the ‘Drunken Pumpkin’ idea and tried to do one big event with a couple other smaller events. We did have success. We had more people at that event than we ever did at a previous year’s event so we decided to continue it and try it again this year,” Grasso said.

Jeremy Thomas, a junior Athletic Training major, feels that raising awareness about drinking responsibly will be highly beneficial for the Mercyhurst community.

“Drinking irresponsibly just leads to a lot of unnecessary problems. I think it is good that the school is trying to raise awareness about it. Obviously people are going to drink, but I think the increased awareness will somewhat limit the amount of irresponsible drinkers,” Thomas said.

Janine Boucher, a senior Sports Medicine major, said the events held during Alcohol Awareness week are great for students who want have fun without feeling they have to drink.

“It seems like a lot of people go out drinking because there is not much else to do on campus so it is cool that the school is sponsoring a bunch of Halloween events for kids who do not want to go out,” Boucher said.

“Don’t be a Drunken Pumpkin,” starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and is being held in the Student Union Great Room. Friday’s events begin at 5 p.m. and the Haunted Club Hockey Game will be held at 9:50 p.m.