Hood invites Frederick community to go trick-or-treating for Safe Harvest event

By Gracyn Van Bemmel //

Hood College celebrated its annual Safe Harvest event on Thursday, Oct. 24, full of costumed children, trick-or-treating, and fun and games all around.

Safe Harvest is sponsored by the Hood College chapter of Mortar Board, a senior honor society dedicated to leadership. It was created with the intention of giving local Frederick children a safe option to trick-or-treat and connect the Hood College campus to the Frederick community.

Earlier in the week, resident assistants decorated the front of their residence halls with spooky spider webs, pumpkins, skeletons, and plastic spiders in preparation for the trick-or-treaters visiting their dorms.

“I enjoy having a leadership role that lets me interact with the children during Safe Harvest so that we can build a stronger community both on- and off-campus,” Resident Assistant Ethan Fireside said.

The Whitaker Campus Center was also bustling with activity as many clubs and campus organizations had booths of fun Halloween-themed games, activities and prizes.

The Pre-Health club had an edible potion-making booth where children mixed juice and edible glitter to make delicious concoctions. Alpha Lambda Delta had a booth where children glued pumpkin stickers onto green construction paper to make pumpkin patch artwork. The Queer Student Union had lollipops and coffee filters that children used to make ghosts.

The Free Radicals Chemistry Club had a “spooky science” table where they demonstrated different science experiments. Blazer Radio had a booth where children put dry ice in surgical gloves to watch the gloves expand. The Alumnae Executive Board had a Halloween friendship-making booth. And Nursing Club had a craft where children glued Q-tips onto black paper to make skeleton artwork.

A few Hood students even dressed up. Rachel Miller, who was working the Student Government Association’s photobooth station, as well as the Student Social Work Organization’s mystery box activity, dressed up as Dorothy Gale from “The Wizard of Oz.”

“I think it’s a lot of fun getting to see all the children dressed up in their costumes,” Miller said. “Last year there was this girl who was dressed up as Grimace, and this little kid in a Sully onesie.”

Jordan Taylor, president of the Student Education Association (SEA), was a jazzerciser, complete with a bright blue leotard. “My favorite costumes are the ones where entire families dressed up,” she said, mentioning a few of last year’s families that dressed up as characters from Paw Patrol, Bluey and Batman.

There were smiles all around as children and their families got to experience all the spooky festivities.

Eight-year-old Leo Hyder dressed up as Gizmo from one of his favorite movies, “Gremlins.” “We came here to trick-or-treat and to have fun,” his mom, Steph Hyder, said. This was the second year the Hyders joined Hood’s community for Safe Harvest.

There were children dressed up as superheroes, Disney princesses, angels, witches, magical creatures and cartoon characters. One young girl even wore a bright red wig and sparkly blue dress as Chappel Roan, and a young boy painted his face white and wore a striped blazer as the infamous green-haired Beetlejuice.

Hood alums Julie and Will Skaarup brought their son, Milo, who was dressed as the Grinch, for his first Safe Harvest. “We live in the area and knew [Hood] did safe harvest and wanted to check it out,” Julie said.

“We are very proud of how this event went this year, and we’re really excited to see what the future Safe Harvest events will go,” Mortar Board president Phebe Frost said.

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