The Seahawk

Issue date: 11/4/09 Section: Lifestyles

Media Credit: Alyssa Bulpett

UNCW did its part to make sure children of the Wilmington community could celebrate Halloween in a safe and fun way. UNCW's Center for Leadership Education and Service (CLES) held its annual Halloween Carnival for Kids in the Warwick Center Wednesday, Oct. 28. The carnival consisted of a spooky haunted house as well as fun and educational carnival games for the children to earn candy.

"The Halloween Carnival was great. What's better than having a little kid run out of the Haunted House screaming, 'I want to go again'? That made my night," said co-coordinator for the Halloween Carnival, Alicia Copeland.

There were 32 student organizations, 43 individual volunteers and 421 guests who attended. These groups were mostly Greek organizations, but also included RHA Area Chapters, freshman seminar classes and a variety of academic departments.

The Halloween Carnival has been a tradition at UNCW for over three years. Differing from previous years, the event was not open to the public. According to Copeland, this was due to fire codes and other building regulations.

Typically kids between the ages of 4 and 12 attend the Halloween Carnival along with their parents or older siblings.

Sharyn Nowling brought her two kids to the carnival and, according to Nowling, they have made it a point to attend the Halloween Carnival for around five years.

"[I bring my children] so they can be safe and enjoy themselves. It is fun and I enjoy it," Nowling said.

Copeland said that she, along with her co-coordinator, Sarah Musten, reached out to community agencies such as day cares and after-school programs to get them to attend the event.

"I was very pleased with the way everything went. The kids loved it and the volunteers had a ball scaring and playing with the kids," Copeland said.

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