The front yard of the Office of Religious Life (ORL) and Cannon Green bustled with refugee families, student volunteers, and children this past Saturday, Oct. 26, all gathered to carry out a classic autumn tradition: pumpkin carving.
Princeton’s pumpkin carving event, hosted by the ORL in partnership with local faith-based refugee organizations, has been held annually since 2016. “The basic story is that there [was] a group of students on campus who were interested and wanted to do service for refugees,” Associate Dean of Religious Life Matthew C. Weiner said.
Weiner highlighted how the widespread displacement of Syrian refugees in 2016 had prompted a push for service aimed at refugees on campus. “I reached out to a friend at Catholic Charities Camden, and we talked about bringing a group of refugee families here, and we came up with the idea of doing pumpkin carving as something that kids would love [and] would be good for the whole family,” he said.
Around 300 participants came to Princeton for the event, making it the largest to date. According to ORL communications coordinator Julia Wiacek, guests came from over four different refugee settlements across New Jersey.
Weiner noted that participation in the event has been steadily increasing over the years. “This [event] has definitely been the biggest we had,” he said. “But [participation] has slowly been growing.”
As per tradition, the ORL partnered with the sophomore class council to facilitate the event. “We’ve been planning this [event] since September,” said Dean Minello ’27, who serves as social chair for the Class of 2027.
“Our main purpose was to get volunteers from our class here, and we got about 35 volunteers…I also helped out with scheduling, and we worked shifts,” he added.
Despite the language barrier faced by student volunteers, Minello described how fulfilling it was to connect with the refugee families and children.
“Although there are communication barriers, we still bonded over…[things like] pumpkin carving, face painting, or playing soccer,” he said. Minello added that the activities of the day “really transcends whatever language or communication barrier there is.”
“It’s really nice to see people from the Class of 2027 engaging with the broader Princeton community and the greater international community as well,” he added.
Weiner emphasized the welcoming nature of the pumpkin carving event, which focuses less on educational services like tutoring — often the primary focus of student volunteering — and more on cultural immersion and “just having fun.”
“The idea [of the event] is to say Princeton…is a place that is hospitable and can be hospitable,” Weiner said. “And this is one way to do that.”
The ORL’s commitment to welcoming all people resonated with the refugee families who shared their experiences with The Daily Princetonian.
“[My daughters] Marinochka and Alison wanted to thank [Princeton University] very much for [the] excursion,” Svitlana Levytska, a participant from Ukraine, wrote in a statement to the ‘Prince.’ “We are glad that we had the opportunity to get there. We thank [the] organization for what [they did] for us.
“The students and professors were very friendly and kind, and the children and adults were happy to be part of such a wonderful community for a day,” Vira Lyubarskaya, also from Ukraine, wrote. “It was very inspiring and joyful.”
Participating families also expressed a desire to return next year, highlighting how engaging the event was for the children.
“The event [was] planned and conducted at a high level, [and I] learned a lot of interesting information about the…life and education of students at the university,” commented Irina Tereschenko, who also hails from Ukraine. “We and our children have had the opportunity to feel the spirit of students studying here.”
“Thank you for the delicious pizza and [the] carving [event] for Halloween,” she continued. “We look forward to seeing you next year!”
Eojin Park is a contributing News writer for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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