By Jay Hammel

There was an aroma of charcoal grill smell filtering up into the fall air, background music being played for additional enjoyment, and college memories being created as Quincy University students took part in the tradition of painting QU’s Penny Lane to kick off Homecoming week 2021 on Sunday, September 26.

Painting Penny Lane has been a creative custom for 13 years and is located on the busiest sidewalk of QU’s campus. Students take this route when walking to and from class meetings as well as heading to the Health and Fitness Center to practice or workout.

Several students, athletes, and club members come together and represent their teams as they are assigned a certain 48-inch cement square of space to promote their program’s trademark.

Decorating Penny Lane involves more than just dragging a brush across the ground.

The volunteer participants of this event are committed to developing a creative design to display for the non-participated attendance who still get to walk across this art.

“I enjoy painting Penny Lane because before we get there I have this idea of what we are going to do, but then putting it into action there’s a whole bunch of people doing it,” Connor Pigg, CEO club member, said. “So there is a lot of things that will change with the design when as we are putting it in and it is fun to see the final result looks different than what we initially had planned.”

For freshman and other first year students, witnessing or experiencing this moment can really exemplify QU’s most popular saying, “It’s a great day to be a Hawk!”

“When they’re coming out in masses like this and they’re all together in groups, it’s really cool to see because we haven’t been able to have experiences like this in the past,” Trenton Henderson, director of student engagement, said. “With this being my first year doing it, I’m glad I got to see this event in its full force.”

The paintings on Penny Lane get transformed each year at the beginning of fall and remain featured for the rest of the academic school year.

“This outdoor event is an excellent way to get homecoming week started and it allows you to be involved with one of the most exciting weeks of the year,” sophomore Josh Hempleman said. “This is an incredible opportunity that our campus has to offer.”

Painting Penny Lane is just the start of a week’s long list of the homecoming hype activities scheduled for its students.