Community agencies bring children to WFU for Halloween fun

Costumed student volunteers will escort children through residence halls for trick-or-treating. Student organizations will sponsor carnival booths, face-painting, haunted houses and other entertainment. Clowns will entertain the children with balloon animals and juggling. 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 12th year. In the past, more than 35 social service agencies have participated, including the Salvation Army Boys and Girls Clubs, the Housing Authority of Winston-Salem and Hispanic Outreach.

“Project Pumpkin is such a special event for these kids and for the Wake Forest students, who are instrumental in its success,” said senior Jaime Bruce, who is chairing the event. “For the children, it provides a completely safe environment to play and laugh and trick-or-treat during the Halloween season, and it allows the students to reach out beyond the campus into the community at large.”

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 sponsored by the university’s Volunteer Service Corps, which regularly serves the community. Project Pumpkin volunteers are also visiting 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 disadvantaged children from invited agencies and is not open to the general public.