Alright, so about... oh, maybe a week ago, our president pops on the forums and is like "Heeeey, you guys wanna do safe treat?" Now, safe treat is this pretty cool deal where they set up this safe trick or treating event set up by the local RSOs. That way, kids are all together (WARM) and they don't get any weird candy or anything (at least I think that's what 'safe' is all about?) So the deal is that the RSO (Resident Student Organizations) put up these candy boths and have activites and stuff. Well, I thought it was an great idea! It's a little bit of recruitment masochism left over from my high school writing club. I knew it was important for people to realize that we existed, so writing club put together a both for EVERY event. *twitch*. So I automatically post back, "Oh! Sure!"

And then there was silence.

So, our president says that he's got a thesis to do and HE'S sure not doing it. Sensing the frustration, I post back that I'll do it so long as I have 1 person to help me out.

The forums remain silent.

Finally, someone posts back and I start my wheels turning. What do we have to do? How much is this going to cost? How are we going to deal with that? Blah, blah, blah. Our entire saved funds are... 50$. W007! So I think to myself "Self? We have to undershoot that by... a lot", so I set a budget of 20$ and start planning. Basically, I thought, I had to pick something that cost practically nothing. Fortune telling? Too chinsy. Storytelling? Too HARD! Paper activity handouts? Too expensive. So I was feeling more and more tired, more and more NOT up to it when I suddenly got an idea: Coloring Station! I was like COLORING books! Then I was like.. ooo, people will PROBABLY want to walk off with those. So I decided that I would draw out BIG ones on butcher paper (FREE to RSOs) and then buy some crayons (Not free, but relatively cheap). So by time I get all this figured out it's the day of and I have to race to Walmart, get all the candy, get the crayons, got some gift bags for people who may or may not show up to help and then RACE over to the union, find my table, find the butcher paper, ineffectually tear off the butcher paper, go back up to get the extra bag of candy they provided. THEN I had to draw out all of the coloring things and then I figured out where to set them (we were at the end of the stairs, so we had some room to lay stuff out to the side and stuff) and then I shook out a box of crayons by each one and sat down.

I tried to read. I couldn't read. I was too worried about the kids coming! So I sat there and looked anxiously around for the guy who told me that he would be there by 4:00. Aaaaaggggonnny. It looked really pretty all laid out like that, but I was terrified that no one would actually want to color!

I was wrong!

The kids started to come soon after and I had my hands full trying to figure out how to weigh the amount of candy I gave out versus the candy I had. I knew I had too little, they said to prepare for 300-400 kids and I just simply didn't have the budget. Strangely though, my coloring seemed to be just as big of a hit as the candy. Little knee tall kids would come down and stare and stare at the pictures and then stare and stare at me and say, "Can I color this?" "Sure!" I'd reply and that easy response seemed to just MAKE their days. They would pick up a crayon and immediately start coloring, at least until their parents would say to each other, "Oh no, we're going to be here all night" and pry the poor kid away.

Trick-or-treating is a tough game, because what goes on in every interchange is really a parent/kid teaching moment. Some parents just want to make sure their kids say "thank you", some parents want a "trick-or-treat" AND a "thank you", some parents just want their kids to take some candy and go, some parents want to make sure their kids "Only take ONE!" and some parents are just happy with trying to teach their kids to talk. Figuring out which is which is a didactic case that I never quite managed to figure out.

But MAN they were cute. All these mini people running around, looking up at you with their lantern eyes, all these hundreds of intelligent thoughts running across their eyes, you just wanted to get right down on the floor and start teaching them something. Mostly I just asked, "Do you want to color?" and they'd say, ".... Yes."

So, now I have five beautifully colored pictures sitting on my kamakazi butterfly chair in the corner of the room. I don't know what to do with them, but I'm really excited about them. It was one of those things that was definitely worth the effort.

I got two club members to come help me out and I think they really had a lot of fun, too. There was a lot to DO for one and a lot of kids to watch, for two. With their help, I got to sit in the chair for a little. Also, lucky for me, both of them brought extra candy. With the combination of their candy and one of our club member's mom going to K-mart and buying us MORE, we managed to last the 2 hours before we ran completely out of candy! Sooooo many kids! So, naturally I have a lot to thank for them being there. I was glad that I prepared the little "thank you" gifts, though they were a little lame. I totally want to do it again next year.... it probably means that we have to have a bake sale or something XD.

Oh! And from a club publicity standpoint: we recruited one member AND we talked to our assigned RSO representative. Both of them appeared to be a little impressed. And that, if I don't say so myself, is called "Slick"!

i got no candies but i got a pair of socks for halloween!
» renaye on 2007-11-01 03:22:36

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