Project Pumpkin combines Halloween fun and community service

Project Pumpkin, an annual event sponsored by the Wake Forest Volunteer Service Corps, will bring nearly 1,500 children from about 35 community agencies to campus for an afternoon of Halloween fun Oct. 31, from 3-6 p.m. Most events will take place on University Plaza (Quad) between Wait Chapel and Reynolda Hall.

The theme for this year is based on Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, “Where the Wild Things Are.”

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. The English department faculty will read scary stories aloud in front of the bookstore.

More than 1,500 Wake Forest students will help with Project Pumpkin, now in its 14th year.

Food Lion has donated $2,500 worth of candy for the trick-or-treating. The company has been a sponsor of Project Pumpkin since the event’s inception in 1989.

Project Pumpkin volunteers will visit participating agencies throughout the month
of October beginning Oct. 10. 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. Wake Forest students will help each child make a paper bag puppet.

The Project Pumpkin chairperson and Wake Forest senior, Sarah Mastalir, will be available for interviews the day of the event and representatives from long-time participating agencies will also be available.

The media is invited, but the event is not open to the public. To arrange coverage of Project Pumpkin or agency plunges in advance, contact the WFU News Service at 336-758-5237.