Campus Hosts Halloween Monster Mash for Children in Community

Ian Snelling

The excitement and adrenaline running through Cordier Auditorium on Oct. 28 was palpable as children from North Manchester attended MU’s Monster Mash, a pre-Halloween event that invited children to collect candy from students.

Cordier was cheerfully chaotic as children grabbed more candy than their little hands to hold at once. They brought bags, even pillowcases, in pursuit of filling them to the brim. “These kids are dying for candy,” said Ty Lynas, a first-year student at Manchester University.

As the children collected the candy, their happy voices filled the auditorium, almost as loud as if a concert was going on.

But the volume did not matter because these kids were having the time of their life. The majority of parents were smiling as they watched their children collect candy, get their face painted or gather a small pumpkin for themselves. “This is heaven!” a little kid dressed up as a blue dinosaur screamed in excitement.

Children were dressed up as everything from princesses to animals to food. No matter the costume, each child made a loop around Cordier, receiving candy from college students on both sides of the hall. They would enter through the main doors, make an immediate right and walk down the aisle. After navigating down the hall, children swarmed the stage to receive face paint and pumpkins. Then kids would leave the stage and finish their loop, going back up the opposite side of Cordier, eventually reaching the main doors where they started.