Students and other members of the Colgate community are invited to let their taste buds do the talking as they sample some homemade chili as part of the Cabin Fever Festival in downtown Hamilton on Saturday, Feb. 28.
The third annual event at the Village Green will include the chili cook-off among several Hamilton restaurants, a snow sculpture contest, a snow obstacle course built by the Hamilton Boy Scouts, and a dog-costume contest. The Hamilton Lion’s Club also will be serving chicken barbecue and plenty of hot chocolate will be available to help participants keep warm.
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More ‘ See the PCD website for complete details about the festival. ‘ Read about Colgate’s Neighbor to Neighbor program
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The activities will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., when judging of the ice sculptures and dog costumes will take place.
The festival sponsor the Partnership for Community Development ‘is a not-for-profit community development corporation formed in 1999 by the town of Hamilton, the village of Hamilton, and Colgate University. Its aim is to enhance economic opportunity and community vitality in and around Hamilton.
Timothy Mansfield, Colgate’s associate director of residential education, has been working with the PCD and village officials to get off-campus students more involved in downtown events and to build better ties between them and village residents and merchants.
Mansfield had contacted Julie Dudrick of the PCD to see about getting off-campus students involved in the festival. So far, about 20 students have expressed interest in volunteering at the event.
Information about the festival and the call for volunteers were included in a newsletter Mansfield regularly sends to off-campus students.
Not only can festival organizers benefit from the students’ help, but Mansfield said it can be a good experience for the students, as well.
‘Students and volunteers can learn how nonprofits work, and how events like this can help the entire community,’ he said. ‘It’s a real two-way street between organizers and volunteers, with both sides benefiting.’
Reaching out to the festival organizers is just one part of the Neighbor to neighbor program that Mansfield initiated two years ago. Mansfield acts as a liaison between students, landlords, and village residents, offering creative suggestions on how to fortify relations.
Tim O’Keeffe
Communications Department
315.228.6634