Children in costumes will overrun Norris University Center on Thursday afternoon.
They will receive candy and participate in Northwestern student group-sponsored activities as part of Project Pumpkin, an annual event hosted by Northwestern University Development Corps from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday.
NCDC, a student-run organization that sponsors civic engagement and social awareness events, hosts Project Pumpkin to provide a place for local children to celebrate Halloween, said Kolby White, NCDC special events co-chair. The event is also designed to strengthen ties between NU and Evanston, which allows trick-or-treating only between 4 and 7 p.m. on Halloween.
“Our goal each year is building a relationship with the community,” the Weinberg senior said.
This is not the only event NCDC hosts to build ties with Evanston. In addition to offering weekly community service sites around Evanston, each year it hosts a gala for senior citizens and an arts festival.
Each year, NCDC invites local community organizations and after-school programs to bring children to Project Pumpkin. Although the event is open to the whole community, NCDC reaches out specifically to organizations with whom it has existing partnerships, White said.
“It’s a compliment to reward sites for the hard work they put in,” White said.
In the past, NCDC has invited members of the McGaw YMCA, the Robert Crown Center and School District 65, among others. About 800 children responded to the invitation within two days, and about 400 more who are not affiliated with a program are expected to show up, NCDC co-chair and SESP senior Michael Alperin said.
Administrators from School District 65 said they were unaware of the event or attempts to advertise Project Pumpkin in their elementary schools.
NCDC also tries to include new sites each year, Alperin said. Project Pumpkin reaches out to organizations in Rogers Park and other parts of Chicago as well as Evanston. This year, the organizers used an Evanston community website to contact churches and synagogues that were not already on their list, White said.
“It’s a little harder to get responses from new sites because they’re not sure what (Project Pumpkin) is,” Alperin said.
Some organizations do not attend because they have their own Halloween events, White said.
The Robert Crown Center has its own Halloween party but also attends Project Pumpkin each year. Parents are generally receptive to the event, though they are sometimes concerned about its lateness, said Donna Kent, program manager at the Robert Crown Center.
“Our parents are receptive to any kind of field trip,” Kent said.
Most Crown Center families that choose not to send their children to Project Pumpkin do so because they do not celebrate Halloween, Kent said. In the two years since Kent has come to work at the Crown Center, all of the children in the program have attended Project Pumpkin, she said.
“We are grateful Northwestern puts on this program for children,” Kent said. “They do a lot of hard work and the children really enjoy it.”
