On Sunday, Oct. 27, the Goshen College athletic department hosted their second annual Trunk or Treat community event.

Trunk or Treat, a modern twist on regular trick-or-treating, involves families parking cars in a shared location and passing out candy from the trunks of their decorated vehicles. 

This variation is intended for trick-or-treaters to experience the fun of costumes and sweet treats while being in the safe vicinity of their own car and families.

GC athletics has created their own version of Trunk or Treat in the Ruth Gunden Gymnasium where costumed trick-or-treaters and their families can cycle, free-of-charge, through sports themed activities run by GC athletes and receive candy as rewards for their efforts. 

Each activity station was run by a respective Maple Leaf team with a game corresponding to their sport. Both this year and last, the GC Women’s Softball team has led the charge in planning, advertising and facilitating the community outreach event. 

Alyssa McDonald, a senior softball player and broadcasting major, made clear that a significant amount of planning went into this year’s Trunk or Treat: “We printed around 4,000 fliers and nearly handed them all out … the day of the event, we met three hours before the start to decorate the RFC. This included painting on the windows of the weight room, painting the hallway, blowing up endless balloons, making little ghosts and spiders to hang from the rafters, placing the blow up decorations and setting up tables and equipment for the other athletic teams.”

McDonald also outlined the activities young trick-or-treaters were partaking in, including, but not limited to, softball pitching, basketball dunking, bowling down pins and jumping on a high jump mat. 

“It was so wholesome to see the joy on the kids’ faces … and everyone would cheer for them,” said McDonald, “it was just really nice to see everyone come together to make the night special for the kids in our community.”

Anthony Roberts, a cross country runner and exercise science major, attested to the success of the event, saying “it has a nice layout, we like the decorations, the softball team has done a great job.” Roberts added that the event had “a great number of kids coming out tonight.” According to McDonald, this number was over 200.

Ana Yoder Coulter, applied piano instructor and pianist in the Goshen College Music Department, brought her family to the event for the first time this year. When asked how she and her family enjoyed the event, Yoder Coulter said “I was impressed…I think my thought ahead of time was okay, there’ll be, like, a bunch of sort of tables set up in the gym that you can go around to. But it was really fun how they had activities at each table that kids could try.” 

Yoder Coulter mentioned that her children were 8, 5 and 2 years old, and that they jumped on the high jump mats at the track and field station for “quite a bit” before moving on.

“I think the event is so important because it’s one of the best ways to build a relationship with people in our community. If we want people to come to Goshen College athletic events, it’s important to give them a reason to want to come and support us,” said McDonald, “I think a great way to do that is to give them a safe and enjoyable night that they can spend with their kids during Halloween and give them a place where they can interact with the athletes in a non-formal way.”