Greeks host ‘safe Halloween’ for local kids

A young boy in an orange astronaut costume yelled “Mom look! That guy’s on top of a goose head!” as he ran up to Sophomore Andrew Lien, an Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity member.\nAt first he squeezed the feet of the air-blown ostrich costume. After discovering the feet weren’t Lien’s, he jumped and grabbed the bird’s beak, giggling erratically. \n“Are you having fun?” Lien asked, as the small astronaut trotted back to his mother in anticipation of another handful of candy.\nWednesday night, the four councils of the Greek system, the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Pan-Hellenic Association, the Multicultural Greek Council and the National Pan-Hellenic Council, combined to put on a ‘safe’ Halloween for the Bloomington community, said Lauren Berman, vice president of service and outreach for PHA.\n“We really wanted to do something good for both the greek community and the Bloomington community,” Berman said. “And this is perfect.”\nAll houses situated on the North Jordan Avenue extension joined with the rest of the greek system to provide a safe trick-or-treating environment for Bloomington children, Berman said. \nHouse members threw around footballs, blew up balloons or handed out candy. Children and their parents walked from house to house, enjoying the sights and sounds. One girl in a geisha costume danced to the tune of Timbaland’s “The Way I Are”, pulsing from Theta Chi’s speakers.\nThe costumed kids, ranged from dragons to princesses and superheroes to IU symbols. \nMolly Matthews, the Delta Gamma sorority representative for Junior Greek Council, said the cutest costumes she had seen so far were superman and a dragon.\nDakota, the two-and-a-half-year-old dragon, traveled the extension with his seven-month-old brother Zachary and his father Gabriel Puett, a Bloomington resident. Dakota at first said he didn’t know what he was, but later recalled that he was indeed a dragon. \n“We’ve been coming to this the last couple of years,” Puett said. \nHe added that the Halloween the greeks put on every year is a lot safer than normal trick-or-treating. \nA timid superhero trick-or-treater took one piece of candy from the Pi Kappa Phi treat bucket only to be called back to get more.\n“Take as much candy as you need,” said the fraternity member as he put another handful of candy in the costumed kid’s bag. “That’s the point of Halloween, man.”\nThe looks of excitement were evident on the unmasked children’s faces, but the event was a good time for the greek members as well, Matthew said.\n“I didn’t have anything like this when I was younger,” the ostrich-clad Lien said. “And I’ll definitely be wearing this for more than one occasion.”