Los Medanos College held their third annual Fall Festival event which showcased clubs and departments, most of which had treats to sell or fall activities for attendees to participate in. The event was a good time for fundraising and fall festivities.

As students walked around taking in the sights, sounds and aromas of the activities taking place, many stopped at the designated tables to chat with club members and get a bite to eat.  

The Veterans Club, with representative Michael Moran, was selling pulled pork sandwiches with a vegan and gluten-free chili.

“We do have a Veterans Resource Center, so we highly promote that,” said Veterans Club President Patricia Granados. The Veterans Resource Center is located next to the Bookstore.  

Students in EOPS, Extended Opportunities Programs and Services, recently formed the EOPS Club. Club member Sirreck Brown said the club’s objective is to help out EOPS students.

“We feel that there are things that [EOPS] lacks and it would be beneficial if we provided our input in a student perspective and that’s essentially what we do,” Brown said. “We meet every Friday at 2 p.m. We figure out things like how we can help out… EOPS. Whenever we have events, we volunteer at them.”

The Art Club also had a Halloween activity set up at their table where kids could decorate a trick-or-treat bag. Art Club President Marissa Bebeau, Vice President Jennifer Ramos and club member Alfonso Camus staffed the table.

“We do the Paint Nights, and in a couple of weeks we’re going to have the showing of ‘The Iron Giant,’” said Bebeau.

Women in STEM sold Halloween-inspired pasta, which included a pasta “sorta shaped like pumpkins” and another that was “dyed spooky colors,” said club member Grabriana La.  

Women in STEM “are really underrepresented in this field,” said Annelle Garcia, another club member. “You don’t have to be a woman to join up.”

Some other clubs present at the LMC Fall Festival were the Los Medanos Ceramic Department, the Mustang Ambassadors Club, the Honors Society, Student Life and Shenanigans drama club.  

Student Life hosted a Costume contest. Participants were divided into two categories — kids and adults. Student Life Coordinator John Nguyen conducted the contest and kept people engaged during its duration.  After introducing the judges, he introduced the costumed kids. “First of all, we have a firefighter here. Then we have a robot. Then we have a dinosaur, another dinosaur, a werewolf,” said Nguyen.

There was also a reaper, dead security officer, and Owlette, a superhero from a Disney Channel cartoon, but ultimately the robot took home the $20 Target gift card.

The adults had their turn next to see who would win. There were four adults participating in the contest—a pirate, a butler bunny, a calavera and another dead security guard.

After a brief pause, Nguyen announced, “The judges are in a deadlock right now. They cannot decide who the winner should be.”

Contestants were then asked what inspired their costumes and who made their costumes. The butler bunny was the most compelling and took home the prize.

Both groups were called up for a surprise contest to decide the best overall costume. After a drum-roll, Nguyen announced the calavera had won.

Also featured was the haunted house “Hotel 270,” an attraction produced by Shenanigan