Skeleton crafts, yard games, spooky trunks and lots of candy filled the school parking lot on Friday, Oct. 22. Organized by the Best Buddies club, the third annual Trunk or Treat was held from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m.

“Trunk or Treat is just a fun time for people to dress up and eat a lot of candy,” club sponsor Lois Arp said.

Best Buddies has been active for the past four years, working to encourage inclusion on campus between peer buddies, standard diploma students, and buddies, those on track for non-standard diplomas.

“Best Buddies is about inclusion and being friends with everyone at school,” Arp said. “We try to buddy the standard diploma students with a student that has a non standard diploma, and then they become buddies and we do things together with them.”

Every month, the club plans a different event to bring all the peer buddies and buddies together. This includes ice cream socials, scavenger hunts and movie nights. For this event, 10 members brought in their cars, decorated and stocked with treats. Others helped to set up cornhole, football and other games.

“[Trunk or Treat] took an extreme amount of planning,” Arp said. “All of our club members volunteer at any event that they want, so a lot were here tonight and others will be at our different events.”

Club members that are peer buddies and do not have a buddy go to meetings and events to help setup and run activities. However, peer buddies with a partner will spend time with their buddy at club events and outside of school.

“I joined Best Buddies because it sounded really fun and I like that we get to practice inclusion on campus,” sophomore Luke Kimball said. “My favorite part is hanging out with my buddy, Will, because he’s always really fun.”

These club events, including Trunk or Treat, are advertised on campus through posters, announcements and word of mouth to give the club more visibility.

 “It gets people that are not necessarily in our club to interact more with our buddies,” Arp said. “We really want everybody to understand that people are people no matter their academic abilities.”

Trunk or Treat gave club members the opportunity to bond with each other as they walked from car to car, played different games, and collected buckets of treats.

“Our favorite part of Trunk or Treat is just being with each other and being able to have fun together,” Arp said. “That’s really what it’s all about.”