UM students host Double Decker Square Fair

University of Mississippi nutrition and hospitality management students ended the spring semester by gaining hands-on experience hosting the 2013 Double Decker Square Fair for the first time April 27.

Students in adjunct instructor Jeremy Roberts’ event-planning class spearheaded the space-themed children’s fair, which included visitors from NASA’s Stennis Space Center, the Oxford-Lafayette Humane Society’s annual Best Dressed Pet Contest and activities such as games and face painting.

“We did everything from picking out the food, working with the vendors and setting up the layout to designing the posters and marketing the event,” said Roberts. “It provided students with one of three hands-on, real-world event-management experiences this semester.”

Hundreds of children and their parents came out to the Oxford Square to take part in games and activities ranging from fingernail painting by the Lafayette High School Varsity Cheerleaders to art projects with Oxford’s Studio Whimzy.

After breaking down this year’s Square Fair, students held a debriefing session and began planning the 2014 event, which NHM students will also oversee.

“It was a fun event,” Roberts said. “We did it as a way to give back to the community.”

Students in the NHM 312 course also hosted Miss-I-Sippin’, a fundraiser benefiting the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council and the NHM department in April, and put on a reception for the Mississippi Dietetic Association’s annual conference in Oxford.