Project Pumpkin brings trick-or-treating for a cause to Wake Forest campus
Wake Forest University students will welcome hundreds of local schoolchildren to campus from 3-6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, for the annual Project Pumpkin fall festival on Hearn Plaza. The University’s largest student-led community-building event, launched more than 35 years ago, Project Pumpkin invites children to the Reynolda campus for trick-or-treating, entertainment and activities. Leading up to the festival, Wake Forest students also visit with local schoolchildren to read books and make crafts.
The event brings together students, faculty, staff and Winston-Salem community members. It’s free and open to the community, with activities targeted to kindergarteners through 5th-graders.
This year’s theme is The Olympics.
Supporting Wake Forest’s Freedom School
The event also raises money to support the Wake Forest University Children’s Defense Fund Freedom School, a free summer enrichment program for Winston-Salem children. The six-week program is hosted by the Department of Education each summer on the Reynolda campus.
This year, Project Pumpkin’s student leaders aim to raise $15,000 for the Freedom School. They are accepting donations to help reach that goal.
Last year’s event raised more than $15,000.
Community members attending this year’s Project Pumpkin must check in at the Office of Civic and Community Engagement tent beside Wait Chapel and provide a completed Project Pumpkin permission slip.
Project Pumpkin began in 1989, when Libby Bell, a student in her first year at Wake Forest, started a Halloween festival on campus for local children. Since then, thousands of children in Forsyth County have participated in the event.
Media are invited to attend this year’s Project Pumpkin. Please contact to confirm plans to visit. Check-in will be at the registration table in front of Wait Chapel.
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