The Wayne State College CatPAC hosted the Crafter Dark: Henna event on Tuesday, Mar. 24 in the Kanter Student Center Atrium.
As with most events they hold, the head organizer was WSC senior Mason Chamberlain.
“This event is a place where students can get together and do a fun, laid-back creative activity and de-stress,” Chamberlain said.
Henna is a natural plant-based dye that allows people to create temporary tattoos and designs on their skin. It is concentrated in cones that can be used to pipe it out and sketch anything they’d like from traditional cultural designs to modern graphics.
At the CatPAC henna event, students were provided with free henna cones, sketch ideas, and peel-off stencils to lay on top of their hands and fill in. Halfway through the evening, tables all throughout the atrium were nearly full, with a short line of people still at the desk.
“Henna was chosen because it’s a fun but unique activity that anyone with any skill level can do,” Chamberlain said.
The idea to create the CatPAC Henna night came about when the team of organizers was discussing possibilities for an easy and relaxing event. According to Chamberlain, the event as a whole was unique from anything else the CatPAC has done in the past few years.
“They also can do it solo or join together with friends,” Chamberlain said. “It’s also a fully customizable event. People can create more traditional designs or create something totally new.”
Carlos Ponce-Lopez, a current sophomore at WSC, assisted in running the event and manning the desk. He has been a part of the CatPAC since October of last semester. According to Ponce-Lopez, CatPAC does their best to create events their organizers believe will be easiest for students to participate in and allow room for students to meet new people.
“Before knowing it was going to be a henna event, we wanted to figure out how to have people socialize and make a low-key event,” Carlos Ponce-Lopez.
Having campus community events, such as the one held last night, in the atrium of the student center allows the activities to get extra traction. In many cases, these activities will have students participating who didn’t even know there was anything going on an hour prior.
WSC freshman Lee Shea decided to sit down and try a new craft when she noticed it, as the event helped her with an assignment for her first year experience (FYE) class.
“I was just passing by after eating dinner and I thought why not, this can be fun,” Shea said.
Another interested student, Bon Mejia, made plans to attend after classes when one of his friends suggested he be used as a “human canvas.”
“I was curious, so I thought I’d check it out,” Mejia said. “I never thought this would be offered.”
CatPAC events bring students from across the campus community together with opportunities to make crafts, wind down from classes and engage with people they might not have otherwise met.
