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What happens when a student has the idea of organizing a campus winter carnival? A tradition is born — or in the case of FebFest, reborn.

"One of my biggest pet peeves is how everyone dreads the beginning of winter," Kurt Mangold said. "We get a lot of snow here in Central New York, so rather than complain about it, why not celebrate and have some fun?"

So Kurt formed a committee of students, administrators and faculty members, secured $20,000 from Student Assembly and set out to throw a week-long winter bash known as FebFest. From snow sculpting contests to sled races to snoccer (that's snow-soccer) to an igloo-building workshop to a chili cook-off, the event soothed cabin fever campuswide.

Yet it wasn't until after the planning for FebFest had begun that Kurt learned his idea wasn't entirely new. Upon discovering that Winter Weekend had been a highlight of Hamilton campus life in the 1930s and 1940s, Kurt headed to the library to page through old student newspapers and yearbooks. "I love Hamilton, and bringing a tradition back to the Hill made the project doubly rewarding," he said.

Through his work with FebFest and as co-chair of Hamilton's Campus Activities Board (CAB), Kurt has learned a lot about booking professional performers, working with volunteers and planning an event from start to finish. But the best part, he said, is laying the groundwork for traditions to continue.

"The highlight of the week for me was definitely the fireworks," Kurt recalled. "At first no one had gathered, and I was starting to worry that the flurries were keeping people away. But as soon as the first firework was set off, out of nowhere hundreds of students migrated onto the pathways oohing and ahhing, and at the end, everyone just cheered and roared."

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