By Kristen Scheirman
FORT COLLINS, Colo. – The plaza outside the Academic Village is deserted, save for a few students sitting at tables under crinkly red metal umbrellas, chatting, slurping down cool drinks, and staring curiously at the giant pile of juicy purple grapes stacked high on one of the tables.
The sun is just barely peeking out from behind a stretch of massive gray clouds in the indigo sky, yet beads of sweat are dripping down everyone’s faces.
It’s hot. Excruciatingly hot.
The perfect day for a grape stomping contest, which works out for the GUIDE members who planned this Sept. 8 event so students living in the residence halls could learn about grapes and wine making.
“I spent seven to ten hours planning this event,” said GUIDE education paraprofessional, Brittany Torres.
“[The GUIDE staff] all comes together and starts brainstorming different ideas… You have to put in the order for things and gather information.”
GUIDE is an organization associated with the CSU Housing and Dining services. There are three different teams within GUIDE; education, involvement, and diversity. Each group plans different free activities for students living in the residence halls to get students to become more involved on campus, learn more, and understand how diverse the world is.
“We want to give students an outside opportunity besides normal drinking, drugs, etc.,” Torres said. “I hope these programs work but it’s hard to say. Some programs don’t have a good turnout but some do. There is also an educational aspect. These events aren’t just to keep kids from drinking and doing drugs.”
Torres and two other GUIDE team members, seniors Danny Webb and Lauren Reese, finish setting up and then wait for interested students.
Five minutes pass. Ten minutes pass. Fifteen minutes pass. Nothing.
“Maybe we should start stomping some grapes to draw in a crowd,” Torres suggests and heads over to one of three small green tupperwares on the pavement, carrying a package of grapes.
Just then a group of about 20 freshman boys cluster around the table, ready to compete.
All food at GUIDE events has to be educationally based so before the boys can compete they have to study a slip of paper with grape and wine facts on it and answer a question correctly. The winner of the grape stomping contest will receive a ten dollar gift card to Mama Roni’s.
“You might want to peel the stems off first or it will hurt,” Reese warns the boys when they are ready to go.
She and Torres tried this out yesterday. They know from experience.
The three competitors hitch up their pants, peel off their socks and throw off their tennis shoes.
“Damn! I shouldn’t have worn socks,” Will Maher says, struggling to remove his.
And with that, the boys place their grapes in their tubs and hop in, stomping in a frenzy to get enough juice to fill up the cups they were each given.
Grape juice flies up in the air as the boys run in place, slipping around in their tubs.
“Stomp those grapes, stomp them,” the crowd yells watching closely with grins on their faces. “Don’t die
Conor! Don’t die please. How does that feel?”
“It feels great,” Conor Guidarelli responds, hopping out of his tub and pouring greenish-purplish grape juice in his glass.
He’s almost there. He gets back in the tub and keeps stomping.
“Am I there? Am I there?” he yells, pouring more juice. “Bam, Bam. That’s full up.”
He is the winner. The other two boys don’t look very disappointed they lost. Just sticky.
“I’ve got grape in the eye!” Guidarelli yells, running around in exaggerated motions.
Their feet are covered with juice and grape peels. The concrete is spattered with grape guts, ooey goeey, running down the pavement.
“You know what? I actually felt the spirit of competition,” Guidarelli says. “…I came to win. I came to win.”
“It was cold,” Ryan Henderson said. “And difficult.”
They head over to the small fountain in the plaza and step in, splashing cold water on their juicy feet to clean them off.
The sky now looks menacing. There is no trace of sun left and rain drops are starting to drip onto the pavement.
In the second round, freshman Aaron Coughlin comes close to winning but right as he is about to fill his cup with more juice, he spills it, causing a surge of uproarious sounds from the crowd. Freshman Justin Savoy ends up winning.
“The loser has to taste the juice!” the crowd yells. “You know you want to. Just taste it, it’s your own feet. Down it.”
Savoy looks down at his glass of juice. It looks like swamp water but he stills looks tempted. He hesitates for a moment. He didn’t even lose the competition.
“Yeah, there’s dirt and crap in there,” he says. “I don’t think I’m going to do that.”
“I had it on lock. I had it on lock,” Coughlin says in mock dismay. “I can’t believe I spilled my cup…I’m going to steal that gift card from you.”
This event went from being dead to being crazy popular. People are waiting their turn to stomp grapes but there are only enough left for one more round of competitors.
The wind is blowing so hard the grape facts swirl up into the air, the water in the fountain ripples, and it starts raining in earnest.
That doesn’t dissuade the last group of girls who decide to form teams to compete. Two teams of two and one team of one.
“This is my favorite part,” Webb says, pointing at the five girls who are now squishing their grapes around, giggling excitedly. “When people actually enjoy it.”
A group of two ends up winning and they run up to fetch their gift card. The wind is tangling their hair up and they are being pelted by cold large drops of rain but they don’t seem to care.
They just had fun doing an educational activity. For free.
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