Homecoming is back once again and left its colorful mark on Aggieville Tuesday.
Greek chapters and other campus organizations participating in homecoming week took part in Paint the Ville, an event in which they decorated business windows in Aggieville with the homecoming theme of “A Tale of Tradition.”
Some of the various stores in Aggieville’s employers said that they love it when the event comes through the district.
“This is our second year participating, and both years it has been so fun,” Gabriella McArdle, manager of Envy, said. “Getting to know the painters and see all of their hard work come together at the end, with a final project that the community can really admire and appreciate, is always just so great.”
Varney’s store owner Jeff Levin said he also loves the traditions of the event. His store has participated in Paint the Ville for many years. He said he has watched the paintings being done since he was a kid back in the 60s.
“Sometimes, the paintings are really good and sometimes, they are just alright,” Levin said. “It is the luck of the draw with the organizations and what kind of artists they have on their teams. Sometimes, you see Michelangelo-type work and sometimes you see what I would draw: stick figures.”
However, even stick figures can take a good amount of time to plan out. The students painted from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, and that’s after all of the preparations were already made.
Allison Dorr, member of Alpha Chi Omega and junior in dietetics, headed their window painting and organized everyone in the sorority.
“We began planning about a month ago, and we started meeting with each other around that time as well,” Dorr said. “Another girl and I worked out ideas about three weeks ago, and then she drew it out for us, and then we found out our window and sized it. Then we had to trace it, and now it is here and still needs to be painted. It has definitely been a long building process for the past month.”
Jenna Kriegh, member of Alpha Xi Delta and freshman in psychology, said she worked hard on coming up with a way to incorporate their team’s theme as well as tying it into the overall homecoming theme.
“I really enjoy seeing how all of the houses have done their windows, because it is interesting to see how each theme plays out in their window art,” Kriegh said.
Paint the Ville and homecoming have grown to include more organizations on campus than just the greeks. Dorms and other organizations can participate and paint a window as well. This is one of the things that Levin said he has especially loved seeing evolve over his years of being a part of Paint the Ville.
“The combination of everything is so great with homecoming,” Levin said. “They have diversified homecoming and made it not only a greek event, but also a whole university event with all kinds of living groups and the availability of everybody to be a part of homecoming. K-State is a family, and homecoming should be for everyone.”
Dorr said her favorite part of Paint the Ville is all of the pep the event brings to homecoming week.
“I think it really captures the spirit of homecoming, and the people who would not necessarily be involved get to see all of the windows out in Aggieville,” Dorr said. “It is really nice when the parade comes by and the whole community gets to see the parade and all of the hard work put into the windows. It really helps tie in the community to greek life.”
Judges walked through Aggieville to look at all of the paintings and score them. The winner of Paint the Ville will be announced at the closing ceremony on Friday, marking the end of homecoming week.
