Iowa State’s Student Government sponsored a pumpkin-smashing event on central campus to help students have fun towards the end of the semester Thursday.

The roughly 200 pumpkins provided at the smashing were sourced from local farms, according to Liberal Arts and Sciences Senator Meredith Mays, a senior majoring in communication studies. According to Mays, the smashed pumpkins will be given to local farms for cattle feed after the event.

“It’s kind of just a fun event for StuGov to be able to put on just right before prep week and finals,” Mays said. “It’s kind of a little bit of a stress relief thing. We don’t want to advertise it that way because we don’t want to equate mental health to destroying things, but it’s just a fun activity to be able to destroy something.”

Mays said the event also serves as a way to familiarize students with Student Government and how they can serve Iowa State’s community.

“This is kind of where more of the fun stuff in Student Government can come at play and have less of a true purpose other than just benefiting students and making them happy,” Mays said.

Despite not being advertised as such, students like Mariana Chavez Jusino, a junior majoring in public relations, said the pumpkin smashing was a good stress reliever.

“I feel very overwhelmed, not just with school, but also with my personal life, so I felt like this was a good outlet,” Chavez Jusino said.

In conjunction with being a good stress reliever, Chavez Jusino said she appreciates the safety of the event. She said with all the dangerous ways to deal with stress, the pumpkin smashing provides students with a safe outlet to relieve it.

“So this is not only on campus, but it’s a safer way, and it is monitored by other students, so safety isn’t an issue,” Chavez Jusino said.

Ahnna Ju, a graduate student majoring in business administration, said she was surprised to see a pumpkin-smashing event held on campus.

“I’m from South Korea, so we don’t have those kind of activities, especially outside of the campus, so I feel it’s really exciting,” Ju said.

Ju said she was really stressed out in the morning, but the pumpkin smashing helped relieve her stress.

Annabelle Bishop, a sophomore majoring in graphic design, said she was suggested to attend the pumpkin smashing by Chavez Jusino.

“It was fun, kind of relaxing,” Bishop said. “Gave me something to do for 15 minutes.”