Face-painting, donut-eating part of annual festivities
Iron Man, Belle and even a headless woman turned out for the ninth annual Trick-or-Treat with the Greeks in Greek Village Wednesday night. Twenty-six sororities and fraternities participated in the event, passing out candy and playing games with the pint-sized superheroes, princesses and spooky characters.
Some students threw bean bags and played cornhole with kids, while others held donuts on a string and had trick-or-treaters race to eat them. Boys and girls got their faces painted by other students, many of whom donned hats and animal ears along with Greek letter shirts.
New to the event this year was a clown making balloon animals.
“Our service chairs, Lauren and Ashton, just kind of came to the meeting one day and thought a clown would be a really cool idea and that the kids would like it,” said Becca Brizzolara, Sorority Council’s vice president of programming.
Many fraternities and sororities see this event as a way to give back to the community that supports them.
“I personally love this event because the Columbia community and the USC community in general are all so supportive of Greek Life,” Brizzolara said. “It’s just really important to give back, and this is something that everyone loves to do.”
Volunteers for the event found it very rewarding to see the reactions of the children who came to trick-or-treat.
“[The fraternities and sororities] love helping with the kids and just letting them have fun,” Brizzolara said. “That’s my favorite part, just seeing how happy the kids are and how excited they get.”
Trick-or-treater Nadia Howard, who was dressed up as a princess riding a unicorn, said she liked everything about the event, but especially seeing the students from the fraternities and sororities dressed up.
For most of the trick-or-treaters, the candy was the best part.
“I like trick-or-treating because I like candy,” said Carter Lynch, who was dressed like a vampire witch.
According to Levi Stingel, who was dressed up as Cocky, Smarties and Reese’s Cups are the best types of candy to receive. The trick-or-treaters in the Greek Village were able to stock up on all of their favorite types of candy.
“You get lots of candy,” said Jonathon Joyner, who dressed as Darth Vader and said the sweet treats were his favorite part.
Parents of trick-or-treaters also enjoyed the event. Wendy Peters brought her daughter because she had heard that it was a great place to go trick-or-treating, and she said she is planning on going again next year.
“It was nice and convenient and I feel like it is safe,” Peters said. “I had no idea there were so many houses back there.”