MEGHAN GUATTERY
Staff Writer
On Saturday Oct. 25, a seemingly endless number of Cinderellas, minions and woodland creatures took over Mason Hall for the ninth annual Safe Halloween.
Hosted by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Safe Halloween has been a tradition at Fredonia since 2006.
“It’s hard to be able to have a successful Halloween in Fredonia since it is a college town,” said senior and Phi Mu Alpha President Nick Albanese. “We rent out the School of Music for the day and we let the kids come trick-or-treat in a safe environment, where Student Association (SA) groups earn community service hours by handing out candy to the kids.”
This year, 30 SA groups participated in Safe Halloween, including the National Association For Music Educators (NAFME), Students Teaching Equals Positive Sexuality (STEPS), Hillel and Leadership Corps.
“We get a letter in our mailbox every year and we like doing things that give back to the community,” said senior public relations and sociology double major and STEPS member Krista Lutz. “We love the kids and the costumes. It’s something we really like to get involved with and we’re always waiting for Safe Halloween to come around once we get the newsletter.”
Groups that volunteer are also able to use Safe Halloween as one of their required SA events. The members of these groups dress in costume and are assigned one or two practice rooms to decorate. Then, for the three hours the event runs, they pass out candy to the children who come trick-or-treating to their rooms.
“The first time we did this event we had 17 kids show up,” said Albanese. “Last year we had over 250. This event has become so word-of-mouth, every parent knows it’s the last Saturday before Halloween.”
The event’s upward trend in attendance does not seem to be turning south anytime soon.
By just after 11 a.m., over 300 children had made their way through the building to collect their candy. By the end of the event at 12 p.m., the final count of goblins and ghouls was 355.
“How often do you get over 300 small children on a college campus?” said senior music education and economics double major and Phi Mu Alpha Music Director Andrew Kopf. “It shows a great sign of trust that parents are willing to bring that many of their children to this campus. Most times they associate us with FredFest, which is probably something they wouldn’t feel safe bringing their children to. Then we hold an event like this which is just to give back in a way that we usually don’t.”
One of the many children to take on Mason Hall this past weekend was 11-year-old Emma Coleman. She made over a six-hour trip with her family to visit her older sister, Kaity Coleman, a sophomore speech pathology major, for Family Weekend.
Emma, who said this was her first time at Safe Halloween, was dressed as a cartoon character who was first shown on television the same year she was born.
“I’m being Raven from Teen Titans,” said Emma showing off her black and purple superhero costume.
Amongst the many little super heroes flying around Mason Hall, attendees may have noticed an incredibly tall man in a suit running around the building. One may also have seen a long-haired, wheelchair-bound man just a few feet away.
Each year at Safe Halloween, Kevin Hammill, a first year music education graduate student, and Rusty Ritzel, a senior music education major, choose their costumes together.
This year, Forrest Gump was the team’s theme. Hammill took on the daunting role of running the halls as Forrest Gump, while Ritzel confined himself to a wheelchair to play Lieutenant Dan.
“Kevin and I like to put together costumes that are part of a team,” said Ritzel. “We try to find costumes that have a theme we can play off of and make the campus laugh and play jokes as if we are the characters.”
In addition to the many community members who have the opportunity to enjoy the duo’s antics, members of Fredonia’s faculty and staff often take time out of their busy schedules to bring their children to the campus for the event as well.
Department of Modern Languages assistant professor Chiara DeSanti and assistant professor of Politics and International Affairs Alex Caviedes brought their daughters, Sofia and Julia, to the event.
“It’s fantastic and we always look forward to it,” said DeSanti. “It is great for both the community and faculty and staff.”
While 18-month-old Julia enjoyed the event from her stroller, her four-year-old big sister Sofia ran about dressed as a queen, collecting as much of her favorite candy as she could: “lollipops!”
While many people could not even begin to fathom what it would take to work with over 300 children in three hours, Albanese and the brothers of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia continue to take on the task year after year.
“It was a huge success,” said Albanese. “Despite running out of candy early on, we were able to get some more and everything turned out great.”