KSC student organizations lined the Thorne Art Gallery parking lot with open car trunks full of candy and decorations for the first-ever Halloweekend Trunk-or-Treat event Tuesday, Oct. 31.
Trick-or-treaters from both on and off campus came to fill their candy bags.
13 organizations in total signed up to participate in the event. WKNH filled the lot space with a variety of Halloween-themed tunes such as “Phantom of the Opera” and “Monster Mash.”
Director of Student Involvement Jess Gagne Cloutier said the idea of introducing Trunk-or-Treat to the Halloweekend roster has been around in prior years.
“This was the year that we finally felt like we had the right calendar where we could take some attention off of solely having things directed for our students and think about a way that we could build something larger community-related into the structure of Halloweekend and engage our student organizations rather than just individual students,” said Gagne Cloutier. “The hope really is that it’s something that we can build into being an annual event with more and more organizations participating over time.”
Gagne Cloutier said although all the organizations participating this year are affiliated with KSC, she hopes to involve an outside organization.
Ben Yelle was one patron of Trunk-or-Treat, bringing his family, including multiple costumed children, to Keene from West Milan to get their share of candy.
“More events for the kids would be nice,” said Yelle. “I think it’s cool that they have the students and the kids interacting so there’s a little bit of a ‘building the community’ type of thing, so that’s really nice.”
He said the event was going wild and that his children were “going crazy.” The children ran ahead and made their way to each organization’s trunk or table.
Some families did multiple laps of the lot and reached every organization participating.
One of the organizations participating was Sigma Tau Delta, the English honors society.
“It’s so fun to see all the little kids come out,” said Mallory Warner, vice president of the society. “It’s bringing me back to when my little brother was young.” Warner voiced her appreciation for how accessible Trunk-or-Treat was for kids who wanted to enjoy their Halloween.
“It’s nice to be able to talk to some of the other peers that have different organizations,” said Warner. “I feel like we’re part of a nice community.”
Charlotte King can be contacted at
cking@kscequinox.com
