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Green Princeton, Pink House create “upcycled” halloween costumes

On Oct. 20, Green Princeton hosted a Do-It-Yourself costume-making event at 99 Alexander Street. From 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., students were invited to bring clothes and other supplies to trade and fabricate into costumes for Princetoween. The event was advertised as an “upcycle” event, where students could turn old clothes into new and creative costumes.

Lindsey Conlan ’18, the president of Green Princeton, demonstrated this idea with her own costume creation. She decided to take a spare white t-shirt, draw a skeleton on the shirt, and cut out the parts of the shirt not meant to represent bone. Conlan explained that by wearing a black shirt underneath the shirt she had cut out, she could create a skeleton effect, all from things she already owned.

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99 Alexander Street, the location for this event, is also known as the Pink House. Starting in fall 2016, this house has played host to Princeton Social Sustainability, which is a group of 10 juniors focused on creating a community focused on sustainable living and activism, according to the Pink House website. Two of the residents, Sophia Alvarez ’18 and Gavin Hall ’18, were in attendance at the Green Princeton event and volunteered information about the Pink House project.

Though having just started this fall, the Pink House has hosted a number of sustainability-related events. This includes a series of sophomore dinners, which were open to sophomore students in Forbes College. These students were invited to come to the Pink House and use the facilities available to cook a sustainable meal using local ingredients. Hall and Alvarez were happy with the turnout of these events, adding that participants definitely seemed engaged.

“We got to talk about sustainability, which is something that doesn’t usually happen at Princeton,” Hall said.

Some events have been more eccentric. On Oct. 16, for example, a group of Pink House residents led a mushroom hunt near Princeton, teaching participants about edible mushrooms in the wild. Apparently, the harvest was bountiful; residents report a surplus of leftover mushrooms.

“We still have so many mushrooms,” Alvarez chuckled, asking others at the costume event: “does anyone want some mushrooms to take home?”

When asked about plans for future expansion of events to students, both Hall and Alvarez expressed interest in opening up further sustainability dinners to the rest of campus. However, they did note that their relationship with Forbes obliges them to provide opportunities for the Forbes community. Nevertheless, Alvarez expressed enthusiasm about shared events with student organizations such as Green Princeton, as these would reach out to a wider audience of University students.

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Pink House has collaborated with a wide variety of sustainability-focused groups on campus to host fun events for students. In addition to events with Green Princeton, they also hosted a Honey Harvest in their kitchen, which was co-sponsored by the Princeton BEE Team. This offered students the opportunity to learn how to harvest and filter honey, according to the event Facebook page. Additionally, Pink House has an ongoing partnership with the Princeton Garden Project, which grows food in a local garden near Forbes College. They buy a portion of that produce to cook their meals, according to Hall and Alvarez.

Both residents said to look out for more events coming from the Pink House in the near future.

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