Scare-A-Cuse: The name’s sort of cheesy and doesn’t really make sense, residence director Eduardo Gomez said, but the abundance of smiles and candy certainly make up for it.

This annual event brings the Boys & Girls Club and Office of Residence Life together in a celebration of Halloween trick-or-treating festivities. Members of the Boys & Girls Club often come from underprivileged backgrounds, so one of the main goals of the event is to provide a safe but fun environment for the kids to trick-or-treat in.

“They’re coming here to find a place to trick-or-treat in a safe manner but, at the same time, we’re trying to connect our students to the community and help out and engage with them,” Gomez said. “We’re hoping that this will get them to be more excited about different ways to help out the community.”

The event itself took approximately a month to plan and was held within the Area C residence halls, which includes Booth, Kimmel, Marion, Ernie Davis, Dellplain, Haven and Washington Arms Halls.

Twenty-seven members of the Boys & Girls Club were dropped off around 4 p.m. at Booth Hall, where face paint and crafts were available for them. Anticipation filled the air as both SU students and Boys & Girls Club members began meeting one another for the first time, and the volume of the voices began to rise as excitement increased.

“Our kids are really excited. They’ve been asking about this since September,” said Jessica Huertas, the Central Village Boys & Girls Club site manager. “They just kept asking, ‘When is the SU event for Halloween?’”

After about 15 minutes, the group broke up to go trick-or-treat with “tour guides,” a group of Syracuse students decked out in mustaches, tiny hats and nerd glasses, in both Ernie Davis and Dellplain Halls. Groups knocked on doors with S’s taped to them, which indicated that the residents inside that room were ready for the kids with handfuls of candy.

Overall, the event was a success, and both the Boys & Girls Club and the Office of Residence Life are looking forward to continuing the tradition next year, and for years to come.

Published on October 26, 2013 at 12:55 pm

Contact Margaret: mglin@syr.edu