Local kids trick-or-treat at U.

The campus crawled with ghouls, ghosts and goblins of the scariest varieties, all under 4' tall and toting garbage bags on Friday afternoon. Civic House hosted its annual Community Trick-or-Treat event, inviting hundreds of youngsters from the West Philadelphia community to the University for Halloween festivities and traditional trick-or-treating. A community service and leadership collaborative hub, Civic House hosted the event in conjunction with other on-campus volunteer groups including the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project, Penn Pals, Kite and Key and the Leadership Empowerment Achievement Program. Elementary school students, as well as some of their parents, were greeted at Civic House's entrance by College senior Sarah Zimbler, a team leader in the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project. "A lot of kids don't have the opportunity to go trick-or-treating in their own neighborhoods," Zimbler said, praising the event as it began. Eager angels, clowns and ballerinas paired up with Penn students from a participating organization, and ventured into Civic House for a host of activities and treats. Inside, students picked up garbage bags in anticipation of collecting mountains of candy and a map of the route highlighting all participating fraternity, sorority and college houses. A UNICEF table was set up to provide trick-or-treaters with orange change-collection boxes. "All the proceeds will go to aid Third World nations," College senior Richa Misra noted. Alpha Tau Omega was one of the many University fraternities to open its doors to the trick-or-treaters. "It's an easy way to help out kids in the community," College senior Sloane Brumland, an ATO member, said. And Wharton junior Mark Apicella, a member of Beta Theta Pi, noted that his fraternity would also host a haunted house on Saturday with proceeds benefitting the Ronald McDonald House. By far the most popular attraction, however, was the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house. Throngs of little children gathered outside for face painting, mini-pumpkin decorating and treats. The participating organizations all hold in common their desire to reach out to students in the West Philadelphia community and Friday's event proved the perfect opportunity. The West Philadelphia Tutoring Project connects Penn students with pupils in local West Philadelphia elementary schools to tutor them in academic subjects and to provide support and companionship. "There is a huge impact on the students? they have someone who comes consistently," College sophomore Suzy Berger said. College freshman Jackie Rogozinski, a mentor in the West Philadelphia Tutoring Project, found Friday's event a great time to bond with her buddy, James Rhades Elementary School third-grader Timothy. Rogozinski lamented the usual brevity of the visits with her pupil: "One hour a week together is such a short time, but we try to make it last." Another group participating in the Halloween festivities was the Leadership Empowerment Achievement Program. Engineering junior Kevin Chan, who is co-chairperson of the organization, explained that LEAP is "a mentoring program that has a focus on building leadership and initiative in West Philadelphia youth through University City High School." The program actually grew out of a community-organizing class taken by College senior Sara Shenkan, co-chairperson of LEAP. University City High School freshman Bernard Reed and his LEAP mentor, College sophomore Samir Mayur, enjoyed spending time together outside of the classroom. "It's fun to hang around with college students," Reed said. While carving pumpkins and handing out candy, Chan described LEAP's activity as "a bonding experience between the mentors and their pupils, but also an opportunity to build leadership positions."