Mini vampires, witches, ghosts and more came together to celebrate an early Halloween with their community.
The Cullowhee United Methodist Church on WCU’s campus hosted their traditional Trunk or Treat alongside a HalloWHEEn Extravaganza meal for the community, in Wednesday, Oct. 29.
Due to the rainy weather Cullowhee has experienced this past week, no trunks were involved, and the event moved indoors, but the gloomy weather had no interference with the fun spirit of Halloween.
Nearly 200 people–children and their parents–dressed in costumes making their way through Halloween themed tables receiving candy. One girl in particular took interest in the first table decked in cobwebs and embedded with spider rings. She spent nearly 10 minutes engaging with the spiders, separating them from the cobwebs and then hiding them together under a cluster of webs. One of the booth volunteers, Kati, offered her different rings to wear but she had no interest in dressing up, but instead sharing with the people around her that she had the spiders.
People of all ages gathered for dinner down the hall; coming and going as they pleased. A selection of soup, sides and desserts were served by the older children of the community, and a facepainting table was offered off to the side where anyone was welcome to enjoy some additional fun. Monthly fellowship dinners are held in the same room, but tonight the dinner merged with the Trunk or Treat, with people coming and going as they pleased.
Events, such as this one, not only offer people an experience of lightheaded fun, but also a chance to serve their community.
“One really cool thing about the preschool program and our youth program is that a lot of our youth went to Cullowhee Kids Preschool; so they’ve literally been with us since they were two, so we’ve gotten to watch them grow as people and then they give back to the community that raised them,” the event coordinator Scarlette Press said.
This event offered a kid-friendly Halloween experience, but in two days’ time, the Cullowhee United Methodist Church will be fully transformed into a Haunted House for an older audience. Hosted by the Wesley Foundation, this event also serves the community.
“About $3,000 or $4,000 was raised last year that circled back into our organization and other different places. Typically, we take $500 and support 5 kids through Youth Villages (Asheville, NC). Yesterday we started having the conversation about how we can support some organizations that are feeding people,” the director of the Wesley Foundation, Jay Hinton said.
For the chance to experience our local community’s efforts in providing a night of spooky entertainment, stop by the Wesley Foundation on Halloween and the day following.
