Remember the years of Halloween when you could dress up as whatever your heart desired? Whether it be a superhero, monster, princess, mummy or animal the choices were limitless.
Do you miss the nights of trick-or-treating with all of your friends when your guardians stood at the top of driveways watching you all race to the front doors? Or do you think about the times when you and your friends knew which houses gave the king size candy bars, because you always made sure to get to those houses first? At the end of Halloween night, did you and your friends trade candy so you could stock up on all your favorites?
Halloween used to be a spooky time of fun, but as you get older the trick-or-treating stops, you no longer eat tons of candy (that gave you a week of stomachaches.)
As you grow up, the Halloween festivities change from the childhood days of witches and goblins. But the town of West Chester and the University keeps the Halloween spirit alive for the students. The Rec center is already decorated elaborately, so go enjoy a BOO-tastic workout!
On October 28th, the town holds its annual Halloween Parade at 7 p.m. where you can go and see people dressed up in costumes and watch dance teams and marching bands preform, (including our very own WCU marching band!) So head down to Market and Gay Street to join in the festivities. Also on the 28th, SAC is hosting Rammy and the Chocolate Factory. Stop in the Sykes Ballroom before 9pm for prizes, games and a lot of candy.
Starting at 9pm the night before Halloween, Sykes presents “Rocky Horror Picture Show” co-sponsored by LGBTQA, and this is definitely something to go and check out.
There will be food, props and you can make your own wax hand! Watch the movie Rocky Horror and see professional performers act out scenes as well! If you and your friends are planning on dressing up for Halloween, use Pinterest to find creative, simple costumes to make.
To end the Halloween festivities, participate in West Chester University’s Bring Hope Home STOMP event. It is for a fantastic cause and raises money to help support local families battling cancer. So get your friends together and put your costumes on one last time.
Registration starts at 10:30am and the races begin at 12pm. Get there in time for the pre-race Zumba then participate in either the 5K run or 2.5K walk and end the race with some relaxing yoga.
Rachel Van Valkenburgh, a member of West Chester’s Bring Hope Home, was quite enthusiastic about the upcoming event saying, “This year’s STOMP is going to be so exciting! There will be a lot of games, prizes, contests and food of course! You get to show off your awesome Halloween costume and run for a good cause. I hope to see a lot of you there!”
Maybe you and your friends will win the funniest costume or scariest.
STOMP is an incredible way to conclude the weekend of celebration by doing something for a fantastic cause, so be sure to sign up.
Even though we no longer end the night with a pillowcase full of candy, there are still so many wonderful activities offered on and off campus to keep the Halloween spirit alive!
Aileen Assumma is a second-year student majoring in English literature. She can be reached at AA823823@wcupa.edu.