Greeks hosting trick-or-treating for children on Main Street tonight

Fraternity and sorority houses on Main Street, between Bellows and High Street,will be passing out candy to the children of Mount Pleasant between 6 and 8 p.m. today.

Coordinated by the National Panhellenic Council and the Interfraternity Council, students encourage parents and faculty members to bring their kids, nieces, nephews, or any young relatives out for an entertaining and safe night.

“We are holding a safe place for kids to come trick-or-treat,” said Cadillac senior Courtney Hunter, National Panhellenic Council vice president of events. “It is going to be between High Street and Bellows at all of the different fraternity and sorority houses.”

There will be 10 different fraternity and sorority houses and there will be several members providing candy to the young Mount Pleasant residents.

“We only require five members from each chapter to participate and normally we have anywhere from 10 to 20 from each chapter because so many people are excited to get out and meet the kids and give back to our community,” said Flushing senior Melanie Smith, president of the National Panhellenic Council.

“The sororities and fraternities have been matched up based on what sorority and fraternity houses are between High Street and Bellows,” Hunter said. “We wanted to keep it above High just so nobody had to cross High because it’s such a busy road. They’re all teamed up. It’s two or three fraternities and sororities at each different house.”

Smith hopes several children come trick-or-treating because the Greeks are really looking forward to this event.

“We really encourage the houses to decorate, make it fun for the kids, wear costumes,” Hunter said. “ Obviously, it’s going to be really kid-friendly, so hopefully they’ll have fun with that.”

Though the houses want to make sure the kids have fun, safety is their first priority when it comes to events like these.

“We do require, obviously, everyone to be sober doing this event and we have a lot of people helping on the street to monitor the cross walk,” Smith said. "We just want to take as many precautions as we can to make sure that they have fun and that they stay safe.”

Even though some rain or snow might be in the forecast, the fraternity and sorority houses expect to keep passing candy out.

“I mean weather is unfortunately not something we can control, so our plan is to just stay positive for the kids and keep our energy levels high so they are excited, too,” Smith said. “Most of the houses have porches so that will be good too.”