Meet Some Chatham Trick-or-Treaters
Around Shadyside Campus, it’s not too unusual to see Chatham students trick-or-treating on Halloween with groups of friends.
For many students, it has become a tradition to go trick-or-treating every year, especially on Woodland Road and the surrounding neighborhood.
This October, I spoke with three Chatham students about trick-or-treating this year and in the past. Students love it, and those I spoke with were sure to highlight just how much the community around Chatham also loves the tradition.
“Everybody was really nice,” Olympia Giannakopoulos ’27 said about her experience going trick-or-treating during her first year. “They’re actually really excited to see the college students out.”
In Pittsburgh, trick-or-treating happens this year from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on the night of Halloween, Oct. 31. People are asked to turn outside lights on to signal that candy will be handed out at their house. The houses on Woodland Road are no exception.
“They’re all expecting college students,” Nora Rice ’27 said about people handing out candy along Woodland Road and Murray Hill Avenue. “They don’t get a lot of kids.”
Amirah Butler ’28 also agreed. “All of [the community members] are like, ‘Oh, what’s your major?’ because they know we’re college students.”
It is this feeling of community between Chatham students and community members around campus that gets students excited for trick-or-treating. Butler made sure to emphasize this, saying “I love trick-or-treating. I’m going again this year.”
Of course, the most important parts of Halloween are the costumes! There are plenty of places all over Pittsburgh to get a costume, especially now that Spirit Halloweens have opened all over the city, but you don’t have to plan months in advance to have a good time.
“I didn’t decide I was going until day of,” Rice said of last year’s Halloween. “So I ran to Target, and I bought one of those skeleton zip-up onesies. I was like, ‘I’m Phoebe Bridgers!’”
If you have some more time on your hands though, grab some friends and consider a group costume! Giannakopoulos and her roommates dressed up as the Powerpuff Girls during her freshman year, and they went out trick-or-treating together. Group costumes almost always mean having a built-in group to go out candy collecting with.
Whatever your costume choice is this Halloween, be sure to keep an eye out for Chatham students trick-or-treating this year! Happy Halloween!
Author Aster Davapanah ’27 is a digital content creator in Chatham’s Office of Marketing and Communications and a student of environmental science.