By Benjamin Payne, Staff Writer
Throughout Founders Week, Sept. 21 through Sept. 25., the Founders Day Committee hosted their annual Door Decorating Challenge, which is a door-decorating competition for staff and students. The goal was to be as creative as possible. Trustee Peter Sauer and Trustee Lynn Marinelli judged the contest.
In 3rd place…
Student Affairs with their “Wheel of Fortune” theme.
A photo of the Student Affairs door covered in “Wheel of Daemen” decorations. To the left of the door, there is a Wheel of Fortune board spelling out “Foun_ers _ay.” Next to the door, there is a spinnable wheel with Daemen questions and a bowl of candy on a white table. On the right of the door, we have staff members Dr. Kerry Spicer and Karen Cash dressed as the host and co-host, respectively.
In 2nd place…
The Registrar team’s Dancing With The Regi-Stars
A photo of the Registrar door covered in staff members dressed up and dancing. Blue tassels adorn the top and bottom of the door. There’s a sparkling disco ball hanging from the ceiling and an image of Dancing With The Stars judges giving all of the dancing staff members a 10/10 score. The text on the door says, “Daemen Pride is Yours & Mine! A Perfect 10, Our Colors Shine!”
Insight Editor’s Pick…
The Student Account’s “Reading Rainbow.”
A photo of the Student Account’s wall covered in a rainbow made out of books. It stretches from the cloud-covered door to a pot of gold on the other side. Below the rainbow, there are smaller clouds that state, “Wildcat spirit in full color. Reading opens doors!”
In 1st place…
A photo of the Business Department door covered in Willie the Wildcat versions of all the business staff. Over the top it says, “The school of business professors pour their experience and knowledge into our students” in blue text. On the left, there are wildcat cubs walking towards the Business Department staff. Underneath them, text reads “From cubs to cats in the wild.” On the right, there are photos of adult wildcats working different jobs.
“I’m shocked! I saw some of the other door decorations, you know, going around campus and stuff,” Hailey D’Amaro, the office assistant in the business office, said. “I thought they were all just so creative… for me, our door decoration was very fun and was a great way to kind of show the transformation of students as they go through our program, but I definitely was not expecting first place.”
D’Amaro then went into detail about the creation of the winning door.
“AI was used to transform the faculty pictures into Willy the wildcat,” D’Amaro said. I was able to feed and prompt the AI and then have it generate the picture and then continue to prompt it until it provided something I was actually visualizing.”
The door decorating was a way for staff and students alike to show off their Daemen spirit.
“When I was thinking about school spirit, I was thinking about something that represented the entire community,” said D’Amaro, “So that was Willy the Wildcat.”