Connecting Plants and People

Image courtesy of Jade Glaister.

Tiny plants?! What better incentive is there to bring college students together? If you passed by Pedestrian Plaza around noon on either January 12th or January 20th, you may have seen the excitement around the Mines Activities Council (MAC) tent as students tried to pick up a tiny plant. Despite some confusion as to why anyone would be so excited about adding a bit of greenery to their lives, it was not a question for many Mines students as the event was extremely successful, running out of 150 plants within a few minutes on the first day and quickly going through 300 plants on the second day. Strong connections have already been made between students and their plants as they parent them, often giving the plants names and placing them in snazzy new pots. Especially in significantly lonelier times, it is always nice to have something new to care for and treat as a new, green friend. 

Casey Langenbahn, one of MAC’s Publicity Chairs, explained that the purpose of the event was to initiate community engagement at Mines, especially at a time where that is very difficult to do. As students care for their plants, they can keep in touch with MAC through various activities, such as sending a photo of their repotted plant. Notably for first year students, this is a great opportunity to learn about the people who put on a plethora of amazing events at Mines. Regardless of some trouble with the wind almost blowing the canopy away, the plant event did exceedingly well and many students got to return home with new connections. 

Providing relations outside of plants, MAC has many events planned for this semester to keep up involvement throughout the Mines community. Currently, a movie art challenge is in place as they invite students to create art out of their favorite movie. Although many events cannot be set into place yet due to ever changing conditions, MAC is constantly adapting their plans in order to provide students with some resemblance of their life before COVID-19. There are lots of events on the schedule for the rest of the semester, involving a variety of activities such as movie and trivia nights, and notably our beloved E-Days. A lot of work is being put into E-Days to keep it true to tradition while maintaining safe guidelines in order to give everyone the experience of this wonderful event. So, to answer the question that many are wondering, yes, E-Days is still happening and there are many exciting activities planned. While last year’s E-Days successfully became virtual as a Minecraft Mines was created, thanks to an extraordinary team, this year’s event should have much more in-person aspects. 

As connections and relationships are harder than ever to make, MAC is doing a great job keeping the Mines community together while not necessarily being together in the same place. By allowing everyone to interact with one another in some way, life feels much less lonely… especially with a new plant friend.