Fraternities, sororities paint faces, play games with local children
More than 250 ghosts, superheroes, television personalities and animals came to the eighth-annual “Trick or Treat with the Greeks” in Greek Village Tuesday evening.
The event, hosted by USC’s Greek Programming Board, saw a number of children attend, all eager to play games and collect candy.
“It is much more crowded than we anticipated,” said Whitney Rhymer, service chair for the Greek Programming Board and a third-year international business student. “But that’s definitely a good thing.”
Though the trick-or-treating happened in the Greek Village, fraternities and sororities who don’t have houses there were encouraged to participate, too, said Lauren Pershouse, vice president of the Greek Programming Board and a third-year international business student.
Each organization had a table full of candy to pass out and some sort of game or activity. Some included painting, fishing for candy, pin the tail on the donkey and even “bobbing” for doughnuts (eating them off a string tied between two trees).
“My favorite part is seeing the young children and toddlers’ excitement at each station,” said Jemila Moore, fourth-year public health student and a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. “Visualizing their thought process when they run up and grab candy is really funny.”
The planning for the event began last spring as the group worked with the city to close roads and get the final OK from each house’s manager, Pershouse said.
The event was advertised to local elementary schools, churches and after-school care organizations.
“The Boys and Girls Club of Columbia brought a bus of students and the Kappa Deltas invited all of their girl scouts,” Rhymer said.
Teachers were also encouraged to bring their children to the event.
“One of our goals was to increase faculty involvement with this event and really see teachers outside of the classroom,” Pershouse said.
But costumes weren’t limited to just the children. Fraternity and sorority members showed off their creativity, too; there were jungle animals, a group of bananas and even one spirited fraternity member dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz.
While some funding came from the USC Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life, individual organizations were mainly responsible for putting the event together.
“Sororities and fraternities were expected to provide their own candy and crafts,” Rhymer said. The Greek Programming Board, along with both the Fraternity Council and Sorority Council, contributed to funds for marketing, she said.
“I was so excited to face-paint,” said JennaMarie Hill, a third-year sport management student and member of Alpha Chi Omega sorority. “Seeing all of the youth and energy celebrate Halloween makes me so happy and reminds me of when I got to trick-or-treat when I was little.”
Rhymer added that while the event is pretty well-established in the community, she wanted to make it even bigger this year.
“My goal was to make it more substantial and increase the involvement from members of all Greek organizations,” Rhymer said.