Shippensburg University’s Pride and Gender Equity (PAGE) Center threw a brand-new program Friday afternoon that caught the attention of many students and staff. 

The program, while not exactly old-fashioned, promotes a message for campus community members. 

The first-ever Lube-A-Palooza is one of the first events that will happen on the Shippensburg campus that promotes body positivity and acceptance. Students could enjoy free ice cream with a twist — the ice cream was flavored with lubricant of the eater’s choice. Despite the abnormality of the topping, most students loved the ice cream and its respective flavor. One student even said it was better than normal ice cream. 

Students also had the opportunity to spin the wheel to learn important facts about consent and win candles, contraceptives and other fun prizes. The flavors and prizes were picked by the coordinator of the event, Jenna Cornell. Cornell is a junior majoring in communications, journalism and media with an important mission statement to create “positive affirmations and reaffirming what we can do as a campus community to get consent and keep consent important.” 

Cornell balances teaching valuable lessons to young adults who need it while having a lot of fun with the events she puts on. 

“The people in charge (Page Center) all make the topic very open and comfortable,” SU first-year student Lai Russell said. “I think it opened a lot of people to new experiences and made an impact on freshman that came and participated.” 

Cornell has created this environment of fun and education while always looking to one-up her organization. Since last semester, Cornell has been searching for a company to partner with before she found Lion’s Den, which sponsored and gave all prizes and lubricant for free.

Lion’s Den is an adult toy company that has recently began helping with events like Lube-A-Palooza on college campuses all around the country. The PAGE center and Lion’s Den both have a clear goal to provide and promote a safe and accepting community.

Though this is the first event of this nature, it surely will not be last. The PAGE center plans on making more “sexy” events. Cornell said there is very little pushback for event ideas and so far, nothing has been vetoed, including a month-long event named “kink-tober.” 

This will be a month-long event with body positive activities along with sexual assault awareness to tie in more positive and important messages about consent. 

Finally, the Shippensburg University PAGE Center is partnering with the Lion's Den with discounts for adult students with present student IDs, including 30% off on Tuesdays upon presentation of student ID. They are also partnering with the local YWCA to create a 24-hour sexual assault hotline at (717) 727-0787.

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