‘It’s like a little oasis’: Be a Good Neighbor Celebration transforms WPU into a carnival

The William Pitt Union assembly room was transformed into a colorful carnival celebration to honor the Be a Good Neighbor Day of Service on April 16. The day of service encouraged and helped students to volunteer with the University of Pittsburgh Neighborhood Commitments in Homewood, Hazelwood, the Hill District and Oakland.

The celebration was organized by Pitt Serves and was open to Pitt students, faculty, staff and the greater Oakland community as a space to have fun and connect with others. The assembly room was transformed into a fairground of caricature and balloon artists, face painters, cotton candy stands, carnival games and a magician.

Rose Genco, a junior civil engineering major, heard about the event from a friend on the Pitt Serves board and was surprised by the atmosphere the organization crafted.

“It’s like a little oasis, with cotton candy,” Genco said.

The carnival games included ring toss, balloon darts, “tip-a-cat” and a balloon field goal post. Students cheered for each other as they won games and were awarded different prizes — stuffed dinosaurs, rubber ducks and sets of fake mustaches. 

As students perused the carnival, they carried elaborate balloon creations with them — big palm trees with monkeys hanging from them, animals on sticks and hats that looked like fishing rods with a dangling fish balloon. These pieces were the handiwork of the two attending balloon artists, including Rebecca Kanar, a balloon artist from Whitehall who has been twisting and tying for over 28 years. Kanar loves to share her talent and art with the students at Pitt and is thrilled by the responses she has gotten.

“I’m just happy that they love balloon animals, and I like seeing people smile,” Kanar said. 

As the semester comes to an end, a community event like this serves as a respite from the pressure of finals. Caricature artist of 35 years and Aliquippa native Jim Kanfoush recognizes this stress and tries to alleviate some of it with his art.

“What I do is just try to lighten up the situation where I can, kind of brighten their day in a way that they normally wouldn’t find anywhere or see anywhere else,” Kanfoush said. “I was born with a gift, so now I just like to share my talents with people who appreciate it. So it’s always great making people laugh and smile, and that’s kind of what it’s all about.”

Students smiled and gasped as Kanfoush revealed their caricature. In only a matter of minutes, Kanfoush captured the essence of Pitt students in ink for them to take home. 

Kanfoush expressed the sense of community and joy he experiences when coming to Pitt events 

“I love listening to these students planning their future, talking,” Kanfoush said. “I love to meet people from all over the world, and I feel like Pitt is one of the main campuses I work on, where there are so many different people from everywhere.”

Connected to the assembly room was a buffet of food with plenty of tables for carnival-goers to sit and talk with their friends. From rice, beans and pork empanadas to stacks of pizza boxes, students had a selection of food to eat, served by the Pitt Serves members.

Though the event was moved inside due to rain, Pitt Serves and the dedicated artists and vendors still managed to host an event that allowed for community connection and relaxation.

Another room was filled with jumbo yard games, like Connect Four, Sorry, Yahtzee and cornhole.

Two first-year students gathered around a large Jenga tower in the game area, taking a break from the outside world. One of them, Rachel Theys, a psychology and philosophy major, was a volunteer in the Pitt Serves team last week and came to the event to celebrate.

“Games really help. Right now, we’re very focused on not having this tower fall over, so there’s not a lot of mental space to be worrying about finals,” Theys said.

This event let Theys see her friends and fellow volunteer members who organized the event.

The celebration was a way to commemorate and celebrate the service that volunteers completed the previous week.

Sam Rushing, a film and media studies and computer science major, was brought to the event by Theys, but expressed that it provided him with a much-needed break.

“Honestly, she dragged me here, but I’m happy to be here. It’s a great break from finals and everything, to just stop being in a room studying.” Rushing said.