A large tent set up in the center of town holds free bottles of cider, donuts from the Cider Mill and freshly made soup and chili. Kids run around the fountain near the gazebo, students walk in and out of local stores and town residents enjoy the fall weather. One of Hamilton’s long-standing social traditions, the Fall Fest, has begun.
This Sat., Oct. 23, Hamilton students traveled down the hill into the town of Clinton to participate in the Fall Fest and Off the Hill Challenge. The event took place from 12:00–4:00 p.m., with a special Fall Fest Jitney running a continuous loop from campus to town for student transportation.
The Student Activities Office and the Clinton Chamber of Commerce worked together for a month to plan this event. Kaity Stewart, Associate Director of Student Activities and one of the primary planners of the event, said the goal of the event is “to get students exposed to the local community and stores in Clinton, and for students and local families to interact. The purpose is to bridge the communities on the Hill and off the Hill in Clinton.”
In town, students could take part in a scavenger hunt that involved 14 different local businesses. Prizes included a free t-shirt and a chance to win an iPad, TV and AirPod Pros in a raffle. Face painting booths, pumpkin painting and lawn games brought Hamilton students and Clinton residents together in fun outdoor activities. The participating businesses handed out free small gifts for visiting students, often also offering a discount or gift card for future purchases at their store.
While Fall Fest is a unique opportunity for students to come together and explore their town, it also holds a lot of meaning for the local business community.
Rachel Bartunek of Almost Local, a handcrafted goods store, was happy to see the event give students the chance to see what is around Clinton. She wants Hamilton students to know that “if [students] are looking for something easy and unique, we’re just a few minutes down the road.”
Jean Card, an artist at the Artisan’s Corner, was proud to say the store has been a participant in the Fall Fest since its beginning. Clinton businesses have an incentive to participate in the fall festival, as the influx of students is a chance for them to sell more of their local products. When asked if she saw more business on this day, Card replied with a resounding “yes.”
However, not all businesses saw a reason to participate in this event. Tom’s Natural Foods was one of the businesses that opted out. The store has been a local staple for 48 years, but its ownership changed in June 2020 during a time of uncertainty in the pandemic. Andrew Sblendorio, an employee of the store, explained the difficulty of their decision, saying, “people coming in for a real quick look, and then running back out, wasn’t something that was really going to benefit our type of business.”
On top of the mandatory fifty-dollar fee for businesses to participate, many businesses were giving out free items. Sblendorio, addressing this, said, “Somebody made the suggestion to us: five-dollar coupons. Okay, so if there’s 200 students times five, that’s a thousand dollars worth of goods that people would basically be walking out of here for free… is somebody going to come in and then spend ten dollars more on top of that gift card? Maybe, maybe not. It’s a little bit of a gamble.”
Regardless of the decision, Tom’s Natural Foods is happy to be involved with a group on-campus to help students get ingredients for on-campus cooking. This business, like many others in the area, always has their doors open to Hamilton students.
Getting students away from their life in the bubble on the Hill can be a challenge. After two isolating pandemic semesters, the Fall Fest tradition provided the perfect chance to allow students to get to know their local community and embrace the incoming fall season with friends, food and festivities.
