For two and a half hours Thursday, Project Pumpkin transformed the Norris University Center into a halloween festival filled with candy, games and fun for children.
Project Pumpkin is sponsored annually by the Northwestern Community Development Corps, a student organization that engages in Northwestern students in community service.
“We need to be reminded we’re not just college students and we are a part of a community here and this is a good way to do so,” said NCDC co-Chair Amalia Namath.
This year is probably one of the most successful yet, the Weinberg senior said. More than 1,000 boys and girls of various ages came to Project Pumpkin.
“We have double the booths, we’re using the ground floor of Norris for the first time, we have had more sites more students signed up, more coming than we’ve ever had before,” she said before the event.
Project Pumpkin is one of the largest student-run community service projects at Northwestern and has been around since the 1980s. Every year on the Thursday before Oct. 31, children are able to enjoy the fun of Halloween in a safe and entertaining environment.
Trick-or-treating is just one of dozens of activities that took place from 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at Norris. Themed rooms, a giant pumpkin bouncy house, a haunted house and face painting highlight just a handful of the activities offered. Students not only hosted booths but also served as chaperones and went “trick-or-treating” in Norris, clad in costumes alongside the costume-donning children they escorted.
“It’s not only fun but it’s a nice opportunity to give back to the community, said Weinberg freshman Min Lee. “It’s also fun way to celebrate Halloween.”
Project Pumpkin is open and free to the public and NU faculty and staff are encouraged to bring their children.
Project Pumpkin attracts not only Evanston and other local children, but families from Chicago, such as Tinise Moore, who brought her family to Norris for Project Pumpkin.
“A program that I’m in is a program that helps a lot of disadvantaged children,” Moore said when speaking about how she heard of the event. “I’m loving it.”
