Project Pumpkin, an annual event sponsored by the Wake Forest University Volunteer Service Corps, will bring nearly 1,000 disadvantaged children to campus for an afternoon of Halloween fun Oct. 28 from 3-6 p.m.
Costumed student volunteers will escort each child through residence halls for trick-or-treating. Student organizations will sponsor carnival booths, face-painting, haunted houses and other entertainment. In addition, a clown on a unicyle will entertain the children, while another clown makes balloon animals. Several campus singing groups will also perform. Most events will take place between Wait Chapel and Reynolda Hall.
More than 1,500 Wake Forest students will help with Project Pumpkin, now in its 11th year. In the past, more than 35 social service agencies have participated, including the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Clubs and the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem.
“We are very excited about this year’s Project Pumpkin,” says senior Julie Gibbons, who is chairing the event. “Such a huge undertaking would not be possible without all of the time and support given to us by the Wake Forest and Winston-Salem communities.”
Food Lion will again donate more than 70,000 pieces of candy for the event.
Started in 1989 by a student, Project Pumpkin is one of several activities of the university’s Volunteer Service Corps, which regularly serves the community of Winston-Salem. In addition to the day’s festivities, Project Pumpkin volunteers will visit participating agencies throughout the month of October. Called “agency plunges,” the visits allow students to interact more with the children before they arrive on campus and encourage volunteerism beyond the one-day event.
Note: Project Pumpkin is held specifically to benefit disadvantanged children from invited agencies and is not open to the general public.
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