About 100 local children are expected to arrive on the Hill on Thursday, Oct. 31, for Trust Treat, a trick-or-treating event hosted by the Newman Council. This will be the 29th annual Trust Treat, a tradition that was started in memory of Eric Trust ’92 who unexpectedly passed away on Halloween during his first year at Hamilton.
Trust Treat is a Halloween celebration that brings children from the Thea Bowman House in Utica to Hamilton’s campus for a safe and fun evening of trick-or-treating. The children get dressed up in costumes and experience an amazing Halloween in a welcoming environment.
Many of the children attending would not have the chance to go trick-or-treating without the program.
“Most of the children that come to this event to attend the after school program at the Thea Bowman House, so their parents may have work or other commitments during this time and wouldn’t be able to take their children trick-or-treating; Trust Treat alleviates that burden for some families,” explained organizer Niamh Fitzpatrick ’20.
Fitzpatrick played a large role in organizing Trust Treat with the Newman Council, a Catholic service and spiritual group on campus. This year Fitzpatrick was able to recruit close to 50 students to act as guides for the children coming to campus. These volunteers will take the children trick-or-treating to the 30 different “candy stops” across campus. Each stop will be hosted by student organizations and groups.
In order to ensure that all of the stops are special and exciting for the children, the Newman Council will be providing every stop with candy for the children. Despite the many responsibilities in her role organizing all the participants, Fitzpatrick considers her most important role to be “Going to BJ’s with Father Croghan to buy 200 pounds of candy!”
In addition to purchasing the candy, the Newman Council will also reimburse student groups hosting stops for up to $25 towards the cost of decorations at their stop.
The children coming to trick-or-treat are not the only ones excited about Thursday’s event. Fitzpatrick says thought it is rewarding to see the children enjoy themselves, “It’s also so much fun for us to see all of the kids dressed up in their costumes!”
Student hosts are eager to show off their decorated rooms and hand out candy. Alex Seewald ’23 will be hosting one of the 30 candy stops in the first floor common room of Major Hall with at least 10 of her friends. Though she says that she is not going for a particular theme, the decorations of the candy stop will feature “a big spider [and] spider webs.”
Seewald said that she is looking forward to participating in Trust Treat for the first time.
“I’m most excited to hang out with my friends and also with the kids,” she said.
Giving children the opportunity to trick-or-treat together in a safe environment is important to Fitzpatrick, as she said that her favorite part of Trust Treat is getting to see the children return “after they’ve completed the candy route to compare what they all got and trade with their friends for their favorite candies. That was always my favorite part of trick-or-treating when I was younger and it’s so refreshing to witness their excitement about something we now think of as trivial.”
