In its largest effort to date, the Office of Residential Life
organized the distribution of $12,000 worth of candy to children
aged 5 to 11 from several South Los Angeles elementary schools and
community centers.
All-Hill Halloween is an event that brings in children from
inner-city neighborhoods and offers them a safe environment to
trick-or-treat. In preparation, students living in the residence
halls purchased five-dollar bags of candy to pass out and decorated
their floors with themes that included everything from carnivals to
pirates.
All-Hill Halloween started in 1989 with only 100 kids
trick-or-treating in Sproul hall. Wednesday night, the Hill played
host to 2,750 trick-or-treating children, thanks to the
participation of 5,000 students, said Cheryl Sims, assistant
director of the Office of Residential Life’s Program
Services.
But the larger crowds meant an added emphasis on safety
precautions.
In the past two years, the fire marshal has enforced stricter
guidelines regarding fire hazards and obstructions posed by
Halloween decorations, said Patty Sae-Wong, president of Hedrick
Hall and a fourth-year sociology and political science student.
Considerations prohibited students from placing decorations on
the floor or in the way of sprinklers and safety devices. Students
were forced to use only blue painter’s tape, which would not
damage the paint on the walls. Streamers and flammable plastic
decorations were banned.
Residential assistants and directors made rounds the night
before to make sure there were no violations, and the fire marshal
inspected the halls prior to the children’s tours.
Several students felt a noticeably strict enforcement of the
guidelines, but learned to work around them.
“It just makes you more creative,” said Rieber Hall
Student Health Adviser Christine Pieton. “There’s still
tons of things you can do.”
Some students disregarded guidelines they did not agree
with.
“We didn’t put anything that will actually endanger
the kids. I understand it’s just a technicality, but
it’s not a greater fire hazard because of a couple of spider
webs,” said Tim Han, a second-year English and linguistics
student.
Han said the guidelines “definitely did not” affect
what his floor was planning on doing.
“If they’re going to rip it down, too bad. But
we’re going to do it anyway,” he said.
Despite certain limitations, the spirit of the evening was not
lost.
Dave Cole, an event chaperone who was back for his fourth
Halloween on the Hill, said he was “surprised by the effort
UCLA kids put into all of this.”
The neighborhood the children come from “isn’t safe
for them to play outside. They wouldn’t have a chance to
trick-or-treat otherwise,” Cole said.
For 10-year-old Chyanne Drivers, the event was not just a chance
to get candy ““ All-Hill Halloween was also her first glimpse
of a college campus.
“I want to go to college someday, to learn about history
and art,” she said.
She enjoyed the decorations, and said she wanted to do the same
for other kids someday.