On Oct. 25, 2024, a community service club called Key Club hosted their annual Trunk of Treat to display Halloween decorated trunks at Stevenson in Parking Lot C. Trunk or Treat started three years ago and the number of trunks doubled from 25 trunks last year to nearly 50 trunks this year.
Key Club’s Trunk or Treat is intended to provide a safe environment for children in the local community to trick or treat. Not only is there candy, there is a DJ, Halloween themed booth activities, and pizza so kids can enjoy themselves which Key Club Vice President Dorsa Akbarzadeh 25’ saw first hand.
“So many kids were at this event, smiling, having a great time, and it proves to students and to the school in general that service and volunteering has profound impacts on our community,” Akbarzadeh said. “I loved seeing my teacher with his child coming to trunk or treat, because it just shows how Stevenson is an amazing place to make a community and how trunk or treat is well known amongst the teachers as well.”
With the success of Trunk or Treat came logistics and behind the scenes work for this wide-scale event. According to Key Club Sponsor Jodie Mosk, there was a significant amount of unseen work to help ensure that Trunk or Treat was successful, both before and the day of the event.
“I work with many different departments, including Student Activities, Sodexo, Operations, and Communications, to coordinate Trunk or Treat,” Mosk said. “During the event, I am making sure that everybody’s where they need to be, making sure food was in place, making sure posters weren’t flying away, refilling people’s candy, taking pictures, saying thank you to families.”
Mosk coordinated with various departments to ensure the event ran smoothly, managing logistics, food, and decorations while also refilling supplies and capturing moments. While Mosk worked with Stevenson departments, trunk leaders like Naomi Roytman ‘25 worked with her club, Future Nurses of America to set up a trunk.
“Our theme was kind of this creepy skeleton theme because nurses have to know the skeleton,” Rotyman said. “Setting up the trunk was really fun as the decorations looked really cool and it was interesting trying to find where we could hang things up in the trunk and get creative.”
At the event, there were themes that ranged from Christmas trunks to Willy Wonka trunks to Minecraft trunks. Starting this year, Trunk or Treat had around 20 more clubs from Stevenson participating in this event which helped it grow.
“I love that other clubs from the school really are starting to participate more, and that’s why we doubled the numbers of cars,” Mosk said. “That had everything to do with other clubs in the school wanting to participate and that’s the best when the school can work together.”
Mosk explains that through Trunk or Treat, Stevenson can continue to embrace the community at Stevenson with student contributions and participation. In addition to giving kids a different Halloween experience, donations and profits made at Trunk or Treat through food are donated to a charity called United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF).
“UNICEF supports a third world country in Africa, specifically Zambia, and then money will go directly to that,” Mosk said. “UNICEF has been around since I was a little kid, so a long time.”
Raising money to help Zambia is one of the ways that Trunk of Treat engages the community in supporting global causes, with donations going directly to UNICEF’s efforts in Zambia. Akbarzadeh emphasizes the importance of Trunk or Treat and community service in making a positive impact locally and globally.
“I would like to thank everyone who came to trunk or treat to help and brought their little kids, like their little siblings or family friends to come,” Akbarzadeh said. “And I would say, you know, service, regardless if it’s trunk or treat or any other form is super important and is what makes Stevenson so great.”