“Trunk or treat!” rang out the excited cries of children, resounding across the Jesuit parking lot last Halloween. You may be thinking, “Wait a minute. Trunk or treat? A parking lot? That doesn’t sound like the trick-or-treating I know.” And you’re right, my savvy and convenient-question-asking reader. It’s a new Jesuit tradition, the Halloween Trunk-or-Treat!
“Hold up. You still haven’t explained what it is.” Okay then, allow me to enlighten you, quickly-becoming-annoying-reader. Trunk-or-Treating, a new phenomenon spreading amongst schools and churches all across the beautiful U.S., is trick-or-treating out of the backs of cars, creating a smaller area for young children to walk about.
This past Halloween, the Jesuit Rugby team and Ursuline Drill Team joined forces to stage Jesuit’s very own Trunk-or-Treat. “It provides a safer environment for trick-or-treating,” says Mr. Anthony Mattacchione, Jesuit Rugby Coach and Assistant Director of Community Service, one of the main organizers of the event. The students “decorated a few cars” and helped pass out candy to the children, talking to them and complimenting their creative costumes.
“Speaking of children, who was invited to participate?” I was just getting to that, my perceptive reader. The event was open to the children of Jesuit and Ursuline faculty members. More than forty kids turned out to get some candy. The eager children, laughing and enjoying themselves, raced about the two dozen cars loaded with the sweets.
This event was planned not only for the benefit of the trunk-or-treaters, but also on behalf of the participating students. “It was a bit of a social experiment for doing something kid friendly on campus, both in terms of the little ones and the teenagers” explained Mr. Mattacchione, saying that it was both an opportunity for the students of Jesuit and Ursuline to help serve the community and hang out with each other. The volunteers were enjoying themselves so much that “they didn’t want to leave.” Although free candy may have been a contributing factor to the students’ inertia, it was mostly because they were having a good time while giving back to the community.
“Now I’m glad to hear that the volunteers had fun, but what about the little ones?” It’s funny that you should ask, my dear reader, as I
was just about to say that the event could only be described as an astounding success from both a logistical and entertainment standpoint. The stellar organization of the event kept things running smoothly throughout the night, and it received “nothing but rave reviews from the faculty,” as stated by Mr. Mattacchione, also adding that it “had the blessing of both [Jesuit and Ursuline] administrations. That means no red tape standing in the way of future Trunk-or-Treat extravaganzas on campus.
Despite being the first year that Jesuit held a Trunk-or-Treat event, its overwhelming success has inspired talk of a new tradition. In the future, invitations may be extended outside of the Jesuit-Ursuline community to the kids of local Catholic schools, such as our neighbor, St. Rita’s. Mr. Mattacchione hopes that it will develop into a timeless tradition at Jesuit, one that today’s students can look back at as “their Halloween tradition that they started” and be proud of their accomplishment.
Hopefully, one day in the distant future, Jesuit’s current students will be preparing their own children to go Trunk-or-Treating in the Jesuit parking lot, fondly remembering their treasured days as a student.
