For the 13th year in a row, Mills Hall residents hosted their Halloween Extravaganza, opening residential floors to the Durham Community for trick-or-treating fun. The rainy, humid air didn’t restrain the community flooding into the dorm from 4-7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 27, as children, parents, residents and UNH housing staff wore costumes to celebrate the holiday a few days early.
According to Mills Hall Director Sara Kate Parker, over $950 was spent on candy for participating rooms in the trick-or-treating event that spanned all five floors of the building. Parker said that this year’s attendance turnout exceeded last year’s. The Student Activity Fee funded the candy and various decorations used for the event.
“It’s really nice to involve the entire UNH community,” Parker said. “I think that collectively, we’re all pretty happy about it.”
The first floor common area housed various activities such as coloring and face painting, along with a game thatinvolved knocking over a stack of cups with plastic pumpkin-like bowling pins. There were also strings hanging from the ceiling upon which tiny white donuts dangled at a low level.
Parker said that the Alpha Phi Omega (APO) co-ed fraternity ran the game room.
“It’s been fun helping kids out and helping the community,” event volunteer and APO member Monica Roman said.
Mills resident Astrid Alferez decorated her doorway with an image of a clown.
“The inspiration behind the design is because of the recent clown sightings across the U.S.,” Alferez said.
A vast majority of Mills Hall residents participating in the trick-or-treating wore costumes and expressed their outlook on the event in a very positive way.
“It just makes me really happy and not stressed about school,” Mills resident Hannah Dempsey said.