The Student
DN PHOTO BREANNA DAUGHERTY
Surrounded by the click clack sound of amusement rides, Kayla Bell approached the carnival with excitement. As she walked in, she knew which attraction would be her first – Freak Out.
The eleventh annual Late Nite Carnival hosted a variety of rides and places to eat, and that’s exactly what Bell was looking forward to. She watched the set-up for the Carnival as soon as it began on April 16.
The freshman sports management major approached Freak Out feeling relaxed – her teal, pre-registration bracelet clung to her wrist.
She came off the ride with a big smile on her face.
“It was extreme,” she said jokingly.
After Freak Out, Bell conquered three more rides with her friends: Orbiter, Tornado and Wipeout. To prepare herself, Bell took many deep breaths.
When the rides started, she fell silent. Fear flashed across her face as the rides spun and twirled. She departed the rides feeling sick, stunned by how fast they went.
Maybe it was time for face painting.
Bell approached the booth, still unsure of what design to get on her face. While waiting in line, she searched through examples with her friend.
“It has to be something fierce,” Bell said.
The two threw out different suggestions. A butterfly? What about about a basketball or an arrangement of stars?
The final decision was Olaf.
“I choose Olaf because I love him and he is adorable,” Bell said.
By 11 p.m., Bell felt worn out.
She didn’t make it to the rest of the rides, but she still walked out of the Carnival feeling amazed.
“[I] never thought people would come out to a carnival like this especially on a college campus,” she said. “To see this and the excitement and atmosphere is really cool.”
The Couple
DN PHOTO BREANNA DAUGHERTY
A couple leans over a counter, pellet guns in hand. The sound of metal pinging as small balls pierce a paper target. The guns click, empty. A carny comes over and looks at the target. No prize.
Paul Fischer, a freshman accounting major, and Crystal Sambor, an undeclared student at Harper College in Illinois, bounce around from game to game at the Late Nite Carnival.
"We were supposed to come with our friends, but we didn't want to wait," Fischer said. "I forced her to come. I wanted to win a big prize [for her]."
He wraps his arm around her waist, and they laugh. They walk over to Water Racer. It's a game where people shoot water guns at a target to make a stuffed minion from "Despicable Me" race to the top. A carny walks by and collects single dollar bills. The bell rings and the minions race. It rings again.
"No. 12," the carny shouts.
Fischer and Sambor are No. 4 and 5.
Waves of people come and go, but they keep playing. The bell rings. Sambor wins, she gets to pick the prize. She points at Tiger from "Winnie the Pooh." He hands her the doll and they stand shoulder-to-shoulder and laugh as another wave of people come to play. They lean over the counter for their water guns.
Sambor wins, again. She exchanges Tiger for a large pug stuffed animal.
"Mr. Pugs. We got a big winner here," the carny said.
Sambor and Fischer walk to a bowling game. He leans in for a big kiss. They pull away and she laughs.
Determined, Fischer pushes the ball back and forth trying to hit the bell at the end. Over and over, he puts coins into the machine winning once and then twice. He exchanges a smaller prize for a purple spotted elephant. He hands it to Sambor and they walk over to try their hand in the gun range again.
"Well we won, but now it's time to lose again," Fischer laughs.
The Kids
DN PHOTO BREANNA DAUGHERTY
Sisters Madelyn and Katelyn Pearce ran around and chased each other around the fairgrounds after eating part of a funnel cake with their parents.
This was their first year at the carnival and the first year the girls have been old enough to go on the rides.
“We’ve lived in Muncie for six years and we both work here … but this is the first time here,” said their mom, Leilani Pearce. “We got here right when it opened because we wanted to beat the crowds.”
They started off with the bumper cars and the fun house – twice, because it was Madelyn’s favorite – and went booth to booth for every prize table to see what prizes they could win at the games.
“There’s a little spinny thing at the end [of the fun house] you get to go through,” Madelyn said.
Katelyn said her favorite part was the games – because she loved winning prizes.
“That’s all she wants to do now because she knows she can get things,” Leilani said.
Katelyn gathered sheets of stickers as she went from table to table, while Madelyn collected whistles and a plastic set of vampire teeth. She had three whistles looped around her neck – a red one, a green one and a pink one.
“I kinda know how to whistle, but not loudly,” Madelyn said of why she kept collecting whistles as prizes.
When Leilani asked Madelyn where she wanted to go next, she mumbled “the fun house” around the vampire teeth and was surprised to find out her mom knew what she had said.
“You can understand me?” she asked after pulling them out and sticking them in her pocket.
They didn’t go on many rides, but Madelyn said she liked the look of the ferris wheel, even though she didn’t think she was tall enough to ride it.
While waiting in line for the fun house for the third time, Madelyn and Katelyn were getting antsy and tossing the stuffed penguin and blue raccoon they won during a game around at each other.
Coming out the fun house after her favorite part – the “spinny thing at the end” – Madelyn said it was “just as fun the third time.”
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