Splash Down Fall Festival helps Knights

It's not every day that a person can play fish pong, carve a pumpkin, and help people in need.

Wednesday was a different story.

At the Splash Down Fall Festival, hosted by the UCF Recreation and Wellness Center at the Leisure Pool, students had the chance to participate in a variety of carnival games, enjoy free food, like candy apples, and donate canned goods to the Knights Helping Knights Pantry.

Samantha Tankersley, Aquatics Program Lead at the UCF Recreation and Wellness Center, had worked in previous Splash Downs since last fall, but she wanted to do something different this time.

"Last fall, we had a really good event, but we didn't have it benefitting anyone like a charity, so this year we decided to partner with Knights Helping Knights Pantry," Tankersley said. "Kind of make it a little more effective and benefit not just us, but others as well."

Students who donated canned goods received free tickets to use at the event.

Sasha Ruiz, a volunteer at the Knights Helping Knights Pantry, said this idea was awesome.

"Well, the pantry is always looking for donations. We serve a lot of students every day, typically right around fifty, sometimes more, so we move a lot of food. So anything that can help us bring in food, we always like to participate," Ruiz said.

In addition to helping the pantry, students such as senior interdisciplinary studies major Andrew Kellar liked what the festival offered and enjoyed one thing in particular.

"Favorite part is always food. Free food is always the favorite," Kellar said.

After attending this event, Kellar would like to see more of these events.

"Oh yeah, definitely, I mean more than at least once a semester, like two or three times would be great because it's always fun to just go around and have events and do stuff."

Jordan Wood, a junior elementary education major, also had a lot to like at the Splash Down Fall Festival.

"The food and just the atmosphere. Everyone's really nice."

Junior biomedical major, Alex Sacova, said she would not mind coming to another Splash Down Fall Festival.

"It was really fun and I liked the food and all the people…and the music. I just want to be in the pool," Sacova said.

After students had the chance to experience this event, there were a couple things that Tankersley wanted to take with them.

"I hope students will be more charitable, will realize that they need to start, like recognize Knights Helping Knights Pantry and start giving more can goods because we have a lot of employees here who use it and we like it a lot. And we also hope students come to the leisure pool more and realize what a great venue it is."