The hallways of Guilford’s residence halls brimmed with youthful excitement on Oct. 29. Project Community’s annual Halloween Fest — a beloved tradition among Guilford’s volunteer service programs and the wider Greensboro community — was in full swing.
For years, Guilford’s service initiative programs have sent invitations to go trick- or-treating on the college’s campus to the families involved with project sites like Glen Haven Multicultural After-School Tutorial, Pathways Tutoring & Enrichment Center, African Services Coalition, and Latino IMPACT.
“Mainly, (Halloween Fest) is just a way to share Halloween with some of the kids we work with,” said James Shields, director of community learning and coordinator of the Bonner Scholars program. “Many of the kids that we bring for this event are immigrants and refugees, and depending on how long they’ve been here, this may be one of the holidays that they may not know about.”
“Because of cultural differences, most parents from immigrant families don’t buy into the idea of Halloween,” said Kevin Muhanji ‘10, a former Bonner Scholar. “But the kids, they love it.”
Guilford College’s campus is also a safer place than most if you want to knock on a stranger’s door.
“Many of them live in neighborhoods where it really is not appropriate for them to go trick-or-treating,” Shields said.
The night began at the Ragan-Brown Dance Studio in the Athletic Center. Excitable children and volunteer supervisors assembled, put on their costumes, and got ready to go.
“It was totally chaotic,” said Mary Pearl Monnes ’10, who works as the Americorp Coordinator at the Bonner Center and helped to supervise trick-or-treaters. “There were a hundred kids.”
Project Community worked with resident advisors in Mary Hobbs, Binford, Shore, and Milner halls to recruit volunteers to help decorate doorways and hallways for the costumed trick-or-treaters. The student response to Halloween Fest has always been high.
“It’s an opportunity for the whole campus to be involved (in service),” said Shields. “We have a lot of folks who aren’t involved in the community, so it’s a good way for us to bring the community to them.”
Shields explained hosting events on campus shows the rest of the student body what the Bonners are all about in a much more effective way than a flyer or a presentation could.
“The good for us has been that many of these students are exposed to these young kids and our service sites,” said Shields. “In most cases we have people come back later and say, ‘Wow, those kids are really great. How can I be involved?'”
In the end, the event was a light-hearted and candy-filled evening for children and college students alike.
“I love working with kids,” said Muhanji. “The Bonner Program is based on what you love to do beyond academics. It was always a break from the business of Guilford classes.”