On Feb. 14, University of Wisconsin-Platteville’s Campus Programming and Relations hosted an event where the students were able to build a stuffed animal for themselves or a loved one. Each participant picked out their preferred animal choice, its stuffing, clothes, plushed heart and its birth certificate.

Before the event officially started, CPR had a huge wait line that would make the wait line at Six Flags Great America’s Raging Bull proud. 15 minutes prior to the start of the event, CPR had approximately over 150 students in line. The event was originally scheduled to last for two hours but CPR ran out of their 340 buddies, 30 minutes into the event.

“CPR event producers attended a conference called NACA (National Association for Campus Activities) every spring. The Build-A-Buddy vendor was at last spring’s NACA. CPR event producers thought the event would go over really well for a Valentine’s Day event,” senior business administration major and CPR event producer Rachel Hopkins said in an email interview. “We thought the event would be very successful, especially for a Valentine’s Day event. It was also a unique event from things CPR has produced in the past.”

According to the UW-Platteville’s webpage, the event was funded from the $108,420 supplies and services budget that CPR received from SUFAC at the beginning of the school year.

“Tiffany Schauer did a lot of research [over] the summer to find the best vendor for what we wanted to do. She also conducted a small on-campus survey, asking individuals what animal they would be interested in building. That is when we realized that this event was going to be very successful! The feedback and excitement from a small population of summer staff members really helped propel the event forward. Tiffany and Rachel did an amazing job organizing this event and the entire staff helped market the event,” senior business administration major and lead CPR event producer Kassidy Kohout said in an email interview. “I know some people were disappointed that we didn’t offer speed dating and trust me we were too, but the room reservations didn’t work out this year so we will try again next year. We hope to bring both Valentine themed events back again in the future.”

The event proved to be a big hit with the students.

“I went because I thought it would be fun for a Valentine’s Day activity with my girlfriend,” freshman building construction management major Caleb Johnson said in an email interview, “[My favorite part was] choosing what buddy to get when we were in line.”

The participants were originally given the choice of picking a buddy out of nine possibilities that CPR provided. As time went on, the buddies slowly dwindled down in numbers and certain animals became sold out.

“They ran out of the moose so I settled for a hippo. Which is still adorable,” freshman mechanical engineer major, Rkia Talbi said in an email interview. “It was something fun to do with my boyfriend.”

CPR’s next event is Dollar Movie Night on March 1 at Millennium Cinema.