What started as an idea from a former university president’s wife has transformed into a campus tradition.

EWU has hosted the Harvest Festival and Carnival for five years. It is the University’s way of staying connected with the community while showing children that college can be fun and safe.

The age groups allowed to trick-or-treat range from toddlers to fifth graders.

With the help of companies such as the Cheney Kiwanis and Cheney’s Fire Department, the Harvest Festival has been successful every year.

Kiwanis Harvest Festival chairman, Kirk Madison, said the Kiwanis has been putting on the Halloween event for the children for years, but once they heard the university was doing something similar, they had to be a part of it.

“Kiwanis used to put on our own event at one of the grade schools,” said Madison. “About five years ago, we heard of Eastern doing an event and thought it would be cool to combine our events, so we did.”

Parents and guardians bring their children to the University to trick-or-treat while touring the campus. The tours are led by student volunteers.

Volunteers seemed to be enjoying the festival as well, as they dressed up in costumes and walked through the campus with the trick-or-treaters and their parents.

According to junior Keyston Campbell, who volunteered on behalf of his fraternity, Iota Phi Theta, this was his first year participating in the festival. He said he and his fraternity plans on volunteering again in the future.

“I like giving back to the community, giving back to the kids,” said Campbell. “So for me, it was a great experience.”

Various clubs and organizations participated in the festival, whether they were guiding the trick-or-treaters through the campus or hosting the carnival games.

For Campbell, that was something he thought was nice to see and be a part of.

“There were different clubs and organizations giving back and contributing to the community as well,” said Campbell.

This year, the tour consisted of six locations on campus: the PUB, JFK Library, Martin Hall, Showalter Hall, Monroe Hall and it ended in the URC where the Harvest Carnival began.

The Harvest Carnival was sponsored by the Cheney Kiwanis. There were many different games such as fishing for prizes and a bean bag toss. There was even a face painting booth for children to participate in.

University organizations and clubs were able to volunteer to host a booth for the children and be a part of the event.

Son of an EWU student, Antwyn Butler, age 4, said he loved his time spent at the carnival and really enjoyed getting his face painted.

“I am dressed up as a vampire,” he said. “I liked playing the games and winning prizes.”

Butler said it was cool to him because he had seen some friends from school, which made him even more excited.

“The kids seemed to love [the festival],” said Campbell. “They were excited and had a lot of energy which made us excited and gave us energy too.”