Stressed about finals? Go pet a cow.
With the Fall semester winding down, Gainesville’s Morningside Nature Center hopes the de-stressing allure of fuzzy barnyard animals attracts more students — and other residents — to its weekly “barnyard buddies” events.
On Wednesdays from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., attendees can feed or pet the center’s chickens and sheep, its wild boar or its cow, Penny.
The event is free, but Morningside accepts donations, and recently it has been increasing advertising to encourage a larger event turnout, said Merald Clark, a nature assistant at the living-history park, which receives funding from the City of Gainesville.
“It’s a great little program, and it does happen every Wednesday, so there are lots of opportunities for people to get out and see it,” he said.
With four final projects due this week, Alessia Salimbene, a UF acting junior, said she could use some animal companionship to make it through.
“I deal with exams and stress with food or procrastination — also puppies,” the 20-year-old said. “And I’m a big animal lover, so this is a really cool way to go see different animals and get to interact with them. That definitely helps a lot with stress.”
“There’s something about petting a goat that just makes you laugh,” she said.
Morningside is Gainesville’s oldest nature park, and it often hosts events that aim to give attendees a break from contemporary stressors. The weekend after Thanksgiving, it organized a Fall Festival that featured a fiddle contest and living-history demonstrations like making sugar-cane syrup and blacksmithing.
“Just being outdoors is good for the soul,” Clark said.
Gainesville’s Morningside Nature Center hopes the de-stressing allure of fuzzy barnyard animals attracts more students — and other residents — to its weekly “barnyard buddies” events.
