Baker Serves to host ‘Trunk or Treat’ event

Story by Trevor Lininger

Local kids and their families will have the opportunity to trick or treat on campus this year with the involvement of Baker students. The student organization Baker Serves will host Trunk or Treat at 6:30 p.m. on Halloween evening in Downtown Baldwin City. The event is in conjunction with Baldwin City Chamber of Commerce’s haunted house.

Baker Serves Treasurer Kristen Shaw said the group wants to improve its visibility on campus.

“This year with our new executive board, we’re trying to make Baker Serves the next big thing on campus so that people actually know who we are and what we do,” Shaw said.

While Halloween is a holiday that gives children the opportunity to dress up and go door to door to get candy, Baker Serves acknowledges the potential concerns that brings up for many parents.

“Some parents don’t like their kids going up to random doors asking for candy, so this way it’s in a controlled environment for the kids to have a fun, safe Halloween,” Shaw said.

Students or student groups will set up their cars in the Collins Center parking lot, decorating the trunks with either specific themes or just a general Halloween theme. The kids will go trunk to trunk to collect candy.

This is the first year that Baker Serves has hosted a Trunk or Treat, but the expectations are high.

“Baldwin City [Chamber of] Commerce told us that they do a haunted house every year, and they get about 500 kids,” Vanessa Shaw, social media coordinator, said. “So we are expecting between 200 to 300 kids, but if we get more that would be fine with us.”

Baker Serves members have been busy publicizing the event.

“We’re sending out invitations to it to many of the area elementary schools and are hoping to have the whole community involved,” Riggs said

Campus involvement in Trunk or Treat does not have to be limited to Baker Serves members.

“I think it would be great if we could if we could get a trunk from every club or organization on campus,” Kristen Shaw said.

If students can’t provide a trunk, they can still be involved by helping set up and hand out candy.

Baker Serves members are also planning an October promotion called Socktober, where they will be collecting socks to donate to a homeless shelter.