The roar of a miniature train, the soft tread of horses and the sweet smell of hot cocoa filled the air of the Griffin Hall lawn at the Center for Student Engagement’s Winter Fest – Cocoa and Carriages event Thursday night. 

Onyinye Uwolloh, an NKU staff member, was around the outskirts of the fire pits enjoying her hot chocolate and waiting for her turn for the carriage ride. 

“I just got the hot chocolate, which was super good,” Uwolloh said. “Eventually after I do the horse and carriage ride, I’ll probably sit by the fire for a bit.”

The multicolor lights flashed gently on each of the three carriages as the line continued to grow with the excitement for the carriage rides. The carriage rides were one of Uwolloh’s main reasons for coming to Winter Fest. 

“I’ve seen the horse carriage thing a couple of times in downtown Cincy, but it’s always like when I’m driving past or going somewhere else,” Uwolloh said. “So, when I saw that as the banner for this. I was like, ‘okay!’”

The carriages took attendees on a smooth ride onto Kenton Drive and down to Norse Commons before turning around.

“It was surprisingly a very smooth ride,” Uwolloh said. 

Brittany Jackson, the director of Student Engagement and New Student Orientation, shared a similar story to Owolloh about how the event came to be. 

“I’m sitting in my office one day last semester and I said, ‘We need to do a winter fest program.’ And I thought,  “Oh my gosh, what if we do horse and carriage rides,” Jackson said. “That thing they do in downtown Cincinnati right? I could bring that here!”

Jackson received inspiration to host the event after finishing her graduate degree. 

“When I was fresh out of grad school we had a program similar to this. We had one horse and carriage, and I was like I can make this and amplify it a little bit more,” Jackson said.

Jackson expressed some concerns about a recent decline in last semester’s events but was excited about event turnout Thursday night.

“I think last semester I saw some decline in attendance, and it really had me concerned. You know, my job is to engage the students here,” Jackson said. “Anyone who was tasked with that, it makes you feel happy when you see people who are doing your program, and the feedback has been really positive.”

Jadis Myrick, a junior psychology major, also had similar feelings about the event even though he came toward the end of it. 

“I’m having a good time. I rode the train and it was pretty fun,” Myrick said.

Myrick explained that the Center for Student Engagement’s email about the event on Monday is what led him to come, even though he didn’t expect for the carriage rides to be as busy as they were.

“I saw the email and it looked like a fun event,” he said. “I’ve been to other events on campus and stuff, but nothing like this. There was a pretty big line here and some spots were reserved.” 

Jackson believes that this could become a new annual program based on the event’s popularity with both students and staff. 

“I think we’ll make this an annual program until we’re told not to,” she explained. “I think that will keep us in the rotation as long as students are enjoying it and faculty and staff and the community will keep it going.”