Halloween on the campus of Florida A&M produced costumes, candy and scares, but most importantly, trunk-or-treating.
Tuesday evening, the Efferson Student Union and Student Activities hosted their second annual Trunk or Treat event at the Will Packer Performing Arts Amphitheater. All campus organizations were invited to decorate the trunk of their cars and hand out candy to FAMU students, along with children from the community.
Trunk-or-treating is a safer and quicker alternative to the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating that occurs on Halloween. This highly popularized trend came along during the pandemic, which offered many parents and children the opportunity to still enjoy the excitement of trick-or-treating. This trend also became popular due to safety concerns not only including COVID-19, but taking candy from complete strangers.
All organizations were encouraged to dress up in their Halloween costumes and decorate their cars in the spookiest way to bring the Halloween spirit to campus. From vampires to pirates, the amphitheater turned into Halloween town by 6 p.m.
Mikayla Quinn, a nursing student representing the Chi Phi Beta Chapter of Chi Eta Phi sorority, shared her thoughts on how the trunk-or-treat event could help the local community.
“I believe that this event offers a sense of security for parents and children to enjoy Halloween,” Quinn said. “Just to see everyone from each FAMU organization come together and have fun and put a smile on the children’s faces was an amazing experience.”
As students and children made their way to each car, they were met with candy, spooky costumes and games.
Makayla Bland, a biomedical engineering student representing the FAMU Active Volunteer Efforts, hosted a trunk that involved games and prizes to give to students and children who participated.
“This is a perfect event to allow children in the community to see people who look like them and get a sense of what collegiate life is like,” Bland said. “As a college student, I am unable to see children as frequently as I would like, so seeing all of the kids in their costumes really made me happy.”
As Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” played, community members and students gathered to dance. Skeletons, superheroes, witches and even a baby Beyonce took over the parking lot.
Parent Asia Smith brought her 3-year-old daughter to the trunk-or-treat event for her first time.
“My daughter loves candy, so it was only right I brought her here,” Smith said.”With my daughter being so young, I believe that bringing her to a smaller setting like this will allow us to be safer and avoid several dangers that occur when participating in traditional trick-or-treating.”