Back when Boston University students were children &- before revealing Halloween costumes, pumpkin-infused vodka and, later, pumpkin-infused vomit &- Halloween was about one thing: free candy.
To that end, the Community Service Center threw a Halloween bash for Boston-area elementary school children as part of the Siblings program at BU, giving the big and little “siblings’ the opportunity to celebrate Halloween &- and, yes, stuff their faces full with candy.
The Siblings program, which has been running for 22 years, gives BU students a chance to interact with children ages 6 to 12 in an effort to serve as positive role models in their lives, according to the website.
The Halloween bonding activity for Siblings program participants was held in the Franklin lounge of the Towers on Saturday afternoon.
“This program is a peer mentoring program which matches BU students with siblings from elementary schools in the greater Boston area,” said program co-manager Keith Esposito, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “We work with three schools primarily.”
Esposito said the volunteers had dramatically increased this year by 100 people, and there are currently 220 sibling pairings. He said not all of them could attend the party because the pairing happened recently.
About 100 to 120 people attended the Halloween party, Esposito said.
Esposito also said the party was a joint effort between several different organizations geared toward young Boston students, including the science-oriented Wizards program, the Student Studio program for art and Alpha Phi Omega community service sorority.
“You can really see that the kids need positive role models in their lives,” said program co-manager Divya Srinivasan, regarding the children in the program. “Their experiences at times could be shocking, and just having someone positive that is there to look out for them. . . is very important to them.”
“This was definitely fun. . . I had a lot of fun hanging out with my little sibling,” said School of Education freshman Michelle Cruz.
CAS sophomore Marie Alessi said she enjoys being part of this program, especially being able to go out in Boston with her little sibling.
“[You get to] do things you probably wouldn’t do if you were just going by yourself, it’s fun when you have a little kid with you,” she said.
“It’s been pretty fun, she’s [her sibling] a pretty cool girl, we’ve had a lot of fun and I look forward to the rest of the year,” said Kara Siemer, a freshman in CAS.
“I volunteered in high school and then I participated in FYSOP and I just wanted to get going with CSC, and siblings looked like fun,” Siemer said.
The little siblings in the program enjoyed the party as well.
“We got to trick-or-treat, we got to play, we got to watch movies, we got to do the blue slime and I got to get my face painted,” said Arianna, one of the little siblings.
“I got to play games, and we get to eat food and we get to watch TV here,” said Sophia, another little sibling.
The children also enjoyed being with their older siblings.
“He is fun, he took me to the ocean but we didn’t go swimming, and we went trick-or-treating, I got a lot of candy,” said Kevin, another sibling.
Kevin also enjoyed the Halloween party.
“I got to dance… and I made two slimes, which feels nasty. We played games, we painted pumpkins, we did tattoos,” Kevin said.
His older brother in the program, CAS sophomore Sriharsh Singh said the siblings experience was “amazing.”
“It’s a nice program, you get to interact with smart people like Kevin, and you have fun,” Singh said.
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