As Halloween nears, students buzz with excitement for one of the largest party weekends of the year. In attempts to combat potential safety concerns within the community, MSU’s Greek life will host their annual Safe Halloween event to provide an evening of fun for the children and families of East Lansing.
“Halloween around a college campus is not really the safest for little kids to go out trick-or-treating, especially for kids that live right in East Lansing,” Safe Halloween leadership team director Eliza Gay said. “This was created as a way to give back to the community and also give kids a safer option.”
The event will consist of a wide variety of Halloween-themed activities beyond trick-or-treating, including games, live music, bounce houses and costume contests.
“We’re here to promote a safe way for them to trick-or-treat, dress-up and have a good time with their family and friends,” panhellenic vice president of community relations Brielle Patel said. “We’re going to have tables of fraternity and sorority life members passing out candy and doing fun Halloween activities. ... We’ll have bouncy houses for the kids and some of the stakeholders in the community, like the police department and the fire department, will be there. This year we’re actually going to have a full-on fire truck be part of the event.”
Proceeds from the event will go towards Greek life philanthropy partner Camp Kesem.
“(Camp Kesem is) focused to providing programming and camps for kids that have been affected by cancer,” Gay said. “It’s all free of charge and a non-profit organization, so they really get the bulk of their funds from philanthropy events and donations from individuals. It’s really nice being able to see the direct impact of the money we raised last year helping them during camps this past summer.”
MSU’s Panhellenic Council hopes to achieve community outreach missions through events such as Safe Halloween, promoting engagement with the greater East Lansing area.
“It was created initially to be involved with the community,” Safe Halloween leadership team co-director of public relations Erin Martino said. “Not only for (college students), but to really get involved with children in the community, so that’s really the purpose of it. Especially now more than ever, post COVID, it’s so important to have safe events for kids to attend to still celebrate the holiday.”
Much of the focus for this years’ event is on the after-effects of COVID-19, with members of the leadership team emphasizing the message of safety while maintaining normalcy.
“We’re still keeping on top of things like COVID regulations," Gay said. "Thankfully, things have started to go back to a new normal, but even last year people were still wearing masks … We’re always interested in growing every single year and making sure it’s a bigger event than it was the previous year.”
Safe Halloween will take place on Thursday, Oct. 27 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on M.A.C. Avenue.
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