Two hundred twenty five children and their families eagerly arrived on-campus last week to experience Safe Block, a Halloween event put on by students.

Residence Hall Association [RHA] hosts the event annually and this year they received record numbers of participants on Halloween.

“This is our second year back and our boys really looked forward to coming,” Rachel Bardwell, a mother from Indianola, said.

The main goal of Safe Block is to provide a safe place for kids to go trick-or-treating. Three different tours took families through residence halls and college-owned Greek houses.

One tour went to Barker and Kresge, another led through Picken, Kappa Kappa Gamma and Kappa Theta Psi and the other visited Lambda Chi Alpha, Sigma Alpha Epsilon and Alpha Tau Omega.

“The students sit outside their doors, the halls are all decorated and people get to swing through and pick up candy during their tours,” senior and RHA Chair Heidi Scott said.

Tours began in the Kent Campus Center Black Box Room and ran for 30-40 minutes each. Families selected one tour and got to enjoy activities such as pumpkin bowling, coloring, fishing, ring toss and dart shooting while waiting for it to begin.

“We did it in Hopper last year and it was a little crowded for all the activities,” Scott said. “It’s turned out really well to have the extra space in the Kent Center.”

Families aren’t the only ones who enjoy this event, as students get excited to be involved with trick-or-treating once again.

“I sent an email out and about 30 people responded quickly to say they wanted to volunteer,” Scott said.

One hundred fifty total students volunteered their time to help make this a fun experience for the visiting children.

“The students are always really wonderful,” Bardwell said. “We had a great time and were really impressed with the way they decorated the dorms.”

Bardwell knew about the event because her husband is a political science professor at Simpson.

“We sent e-mail to faculty and staff, shared in on our Facebook page and sent flyers to all the local elementary schools,” Scott said.

As word about the event spreads, many plan on returning. Bardwell says they will definitely be back in 2013.

“We’ve realized Simpson students give out the best candy,” Bardwell said.