By Gracyn Van Bemmel \/\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d Resident Assistant Ethan Fireside said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Free Radicals Chemistry Club had a \u201cspooky science\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few Hood students even dressed up. Rachel Miller, who was working the Student Government Association\u2019s photobooth station, as well as the Student Social Work Organization\u2019s mystery box activity, dressed up as Dorothy Gale from \u201cThe Wizard of Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s a lot of fun getting to see all the children dressed up in their costumes,\u201d Miller said. \u201cLast year there was this girl who was dressed up as Grimace, and this little kid in a Sully onesie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jordan Taylor, president of the Student Education Association (SEA), was a jazzerciser, complete with a bright blue leotard. \u201cMy favorite costumes are the ones where entire families dressed up,\u201d she said, mentioning a few of last year\u2019s families that dressed up as characters from Paw Patrol, Bluey and Batman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were smiles all around as children and their families got to experience all the spooky festivities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eight-year-old Leo Hyder dressed up as Gizmo from one of his favorite movies, \u201cGremlins.\u201d \u201cWe came here to trick-or-treat and to have fun,\u201d his mom, Steph Hyder, said. This was the second year the Hyders joined Hood\u2019s community for Safe Harvest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hood alums Julie and Will Skaarup brought their son, Milo, who was dressed as the Grinch, for his first Safe Harvest. \u201cWe live in the area and knew [Hood] did safe harvest and wanted to check it out,\u201d Julie said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are very proud of how this event went this year, and we\u2019re really excited to see what the future Safe Harvest events will go,\u201d Mortar Board president Phebe Frost said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"