By Mick Dillon / The Jambar
Bull & Bear Grille and Tavern partnered with several Youngstown State University programs from 5-7 p.m. Oct. 18 to host a pumpkin paint and sip event at its Elm Street location.
The event’s purpose was to raise money for YSU’s Medical Laboratory Science club, American Chemical Society and the Society of Physics Students.
Brooke Heavilin, YSU junior medical laboratory science major, Bull & Bear employee and president of MLS, was responsible for organizing the event, and was in attendance to represent her club.
“You come in, you buy a $7 bracelet … and just drink whatever you want and you’re gonna paint on a pumpkin,” Heavilin said. “We’re also going to have some baskets to raffle off … There’s some home decor, and then some wine … And then a few of them have Bull & Bear gift cards.”
Zane Perrico, senior physics and math major and president of SPS, said the club’s main priority is to raise funds for the program’s upcoming trips and provide academic support for YSU’s physics students.
“We host coffee hours where we teach people how to read professional papers … we do monthly meetings … and then we also host another event [at Bull & Bear] called Astro on Tap, where we give lectures from some of our staff, and then we do bingo as well,” Perrico said.
Justin Tucker, YSU junior chemistry major and president of ACS, said the event wasn’t just for students.
“We’re inviting everybody — YSU faculty, staff, students, non-faculty, staff or students,” Tucker said.
Along with fundraising, Tucker said he was interested in showing people what ACS stands for.
“Unlike a lot of other student organizations here, we represent anyone in chemistry or chemistry adjacent,” Tucker said. “We represent a very large body of people in STEM and even in health and human services.”
With the restaurant seeing a steady flow of attendees throughout the night, Heavilin said she was impressed with the turnout.
“We made a lot of money for ticket sales … We sold around 38 [pumpkins],” Heavilin said. “We had people that didn’t paint pumpkins, but they spent money on the raffle … [The event] overall was really successful, and we got a lot of people in.”
This was not Bull & Bear’s first time hosting a community event, and Heavilin said it won’t be the last.
“Having events like this draws a lot of people in and it helps out with business for Bull & Bear,” Heavilin said. “One of the programs involved with us today actually helped [host] bingo here. It brought in about 80 to 90 people, and sales were great.”