This content was published: October 12, 2015. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
Rock Creek’s annual Harvest Festival celebrates 15th-year milestone
Story by Janis Nichols. Photos by James Hill.
Cassandra Garcia, Rock Creek’s ASPCC director of programming, is coordinating the event this year and said it’s an event people shouldn’t miss
Henna tattoos, pumpkin bowling, a scavenger hunt and all the traditional features of the annual PCC Harvest Festival will be ready for an anticipated 1,000 guests from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Rock Creek Campus.
Parking and all festival activities are free. There will be food for sale both on the mall near Building 3 and at the farm stand in the campus’ Learning Garden.
Cassandra Garcia, Rock Creek’s ASPCC director of programming, is coordinating the event this year and said it’s an event people shouldn’t miss.
“We’ll have face and nail painting, free pumpkins, pumpkin decorating, hayrides, live music, food, a free cupcake walk, a petting zoo, a photo booth, pumpkin bowling, raffles, and a sidewalk chalk competition with prizes,” she said. “Students will collect garage sale items and proceeds will benefit the ESOL program. There will also be opportunities to donate throughout the day in support of the Harvest Festival.”
A donation of $5 per family is suggested and free raffle tickets come with donated canned goods. Free parking is available in the Event Center parking lot behind Building 9. The hay rides that loop around the campus will run all day and will be staged between buildings 2 and 5. Tours and pumpkins will be in the Learning Garden and all other activities will take place in Building 3 mall and in the courtyard.
Garcia, a biology major who will graduate from PCC next June, wanted to lead the event this year because the Harvest Festival is a Rock Creek tradition and always brings joy to the community.
Come to Harvest Festival and enjoy a hayride.
“This is an event open to the whole community and I enjoy watching how happy it makes everyone,” said Garcia, who served as an equity ambassador for Rock Creek’s Multicultural Center last year and now is active in ASPCC leadership at the campus. “They really have a great time and many families come back year after year.”
Garcia, a Hillsboro native, enrolled in the Early College High School Program while in high school, and will graduate from PCC with an associate degree this academic year. She plans to attend Pacific University in Forest Grove and study pre-med. She has an eye on becoming a neurosurgeon some day.
If you are interested in volunteering for the event (volunteers are always welcome), contact Garcia at Cassandra.garcia@pcc.edu.
“It is one of our most important events on campus where the community really comes out,” Garcia said.
Hi! We attended the Harvest Celebration today and saw the beautiful cultural display with music and dancing. I have been disappointed to not find any information about the tribe who so generously and beautifully shared their customs and traditions with us. Will please share the name of the tribe and where we can do more research so we may learn more about their culture? Thank you to every volunteer who made our experience this year something to remember!