Halloween – Center for Law, Engagement, and Politics

LEAP Ambassadors Brave Haunted Trails

by Olivia Discon

After an afternoon filled with costumes and candy at Huntsville Main Street’s Scare on the Square…

…we decided to take our Halloween festivities to the next level by heading to the Haunted Trails at Kate Barr Ross Park. Put on by the Huntsville Parks and Leisure Department, Haunted Trails is like a haunted house…just with way more trees, a few extra screams, and no escape until you reach the end.

Our very own President of the LEAP Ambassadors, Cinthia Villareal, who’s also an intern with the Parks Department, helped organize this outdoor fright fest, so of course, we had to show up and support her creative take on community engagement (read: gleeful terror).

As a group of brave individuals (and maybe a few reluctant ones), we wandered through eerie scenes, from a haunted psych ward to a creepy scarecrows, with each turn holding horrors in and of themselves.

The group was doing fairly well throughout. Well, that was until the clowns.

Michelle, who had been playing it cool all night, took one look at the clowns and immediately shrieked. To my recollection, she went as far as to say “Anything but clowns!”

Naturally, this drew them right to her, making her and Saara the undisputed scream queens of the evening. It’s safe to say Michelle didn’t enjoy the clown house much.

Chrissy, however, in her classic stoic style, strolled through the whole thing dressed as Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, barely batting an eye at the frights around her.

Of course, with Chrissy, you can never quite tell what’s happening in her head!

Haunted Trails was a hilariously spooky way to cap off our Halloween celebrations, and we were all proud to support Cinthia in her haunting (and slightly twisted) community efforts. The event was a fun reminder of how Huntsville, with the help of local SHSU volunteers as actors, brings out the Halloween spirit in ways that are frightfully good for everyone involved.

Scare on the Square

October 30, 2021, Yvette Mendoza

LEAP Leads and Pre-Law Society members had the opportunity to volunteer at a spooky and thrilling event, Scare on the Square, hosted by Huntsville Mainstreet! Families poured through the downtown streets of Huntsville to attend this event that consisted of a costume contest, food tents, KSAM’s music hits, and a variety of organizations with booths that gave away Halloween candy, food, and prizes!

Our LEAP Leads and PLS groups set up our booth with a spooky bowl full of eyeballs, and a fun LEAP cornhole and ring toss game. The children were dressed up and ready to explore Scare on the Square!

Our volunteers had multiple different costumes that made the event much more spirited, from animals, movie characters, a hippie, and even a banana! We all kept in the character of our costumes as we rotated positions in making sure our booth ran smoothly. While some of us were working the prize table and giving out candy, the others were assisting families in playing corn hole and ring toss.

Continuing the exciting festivities, we were able to walk through the lively, jam-packed crowds and view other organizations setups at Scare on the Square. It was great to see CHSS (thank you for letting us borrow your organization’s tent), Tammy Gann and the interns at the Huntsville Economic Development tent; Sarah Faulkner representing Main Street and councilmember Beebe’s skateboards!

Each booth had kids and volunteers filled with an immense amount of excitement and there were smiling faces everywhere you looked! As more volunteers began to come in to switch with the ones that have been at ours for the first half, we were able to see the fun and creative costumes they wore. Catalina was an adorable minion while Mario was a movie character from Top Gun. We all captured the moment and took various pictures in our attires.

Towards the end children were running ramped from the high consumption of sugary candy, and parents and volunteers were exhausted. Although everyone may have been tired, we all wouldn’t miss out on making all the children at Scare on the Square have the brightest of smiles. LEAP Leads and PLS volunteers learned how to work as a team and help our beloved city of Huntsville celebrate Halloween weekend!

Square on the Square: 2015 Version

Here’s a riddle: What makes goblins and dentists both frightened and gleeful? The Answer?…. Yep that’s right you guessed it, its Halloween!!!!

Of course the LEAP Ambassadors and Pre-Law Cohort would come together to help the local community of Huntsville at the annual Scare on the Square event. Scare on the Square is an event sponsored by the City of Huntsville (by Huntsville Main Street) where local business, community groups, and even high school and college students come together to throw a safe but frightful and fun event for local children.

The LEAP Ambassadors and the Pre-Law Cohort decided to provide two games for the children. The first, is one that we named “Place the Bow on Mr. Bones”! This game gave children the opportunity to earn candy by correctly placing the bow on our honorary LEAP Ambassador member, Mr. Bones, while blindfolded.

The best part of the game is that before the children can be allowed to properly find Mr. Bones they must first be spun around five times; this was hilarious!

Our second game a bowling game with our googly-eyed bowling pins!

Surprisingly the bowling pins scared a lot of the children; especially when they eyes began to pop off of the pins from the beating they were receiving! The kids, however, were willing to overlook these eyes for a scoop of precious candy!

Austin of course came dressed for the affair as a farmer! What we all didn’t expect was for him to have a twin there as well!

As the Scare on the Square came to an end we were all very happy that we could put some smiles on children’s faces.

…and on the LEAP Ambassadors’ faces…

In thinking of this we were all reminded of the joy that the LEAP Team can bring to people of all ages in the Huntsville Community.

Aat the same time we were also reminded of the reason why too much candy can be a bad thing. However there are some things that we can never outgrow!

Happy Halloween!

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