Costumed Children Scramble for Candy at PBHA Event

Elementary school students poured through the tunnels of Adams House laughing and shrieking at every turn—handling buckets of candy and enjoying a haunted house organized by the Phillips Brooks House Association and Adams House Committee.

This past Saturday, PBHA partnered with Adams HoCo to organize an event that brought together elementary school students from across the Greater Boston area.

According to PBHA afterschool program group officer Victoria H. Jones ’17, a total of about 60 students from four different PBHA programs—Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment, Roxbury Youth Initiative, Chinatown Afterschool, and Franklin Afterschool Enrichment—attended the event.

The event comprised of three sets of activities within Adams House. The first portion was hosted in the “K Space"—a new party space in Adams—that included games, music, face paint, and pumpkin decorating. The second featured outdoor activities in the Adams courtyard. The final activity was trick-or-treating with House residents.

Upon arrival, the students appeared eager and excited to experience the holiday festivities. With costumes ranging from Power Rangers to classic ghost attire, the children embraced scrambling around a building in search of candy.

Aside from providing students with a fun activity during the weekend, the event was also served other purposes for PBHA, according to Adams HoCo member Gianna C. Cacciatore ’17, who is also the term-time director of the Boston Refugee Youth Enrichment program.

“Since all the programs are mixed together at the party, those neighborhoods will get to meet each other. That is great, because neighborhoods that have not historically gotten along, now have an opportunity to meet each other and make friends,” she said, referring to the various neighborhoods where the PBHA programs are based. “It’s a fun way to build a sense of community in the program."

The event allowed Harvard students to collaborate as well. Adams HoCo Chair Tasnim Ahmed ’17 said the event enabled the House to give back while also enabling Harvard students from different organizations to meet.

Coincidentally, the haunted house coincided with PBHA’s alumni weekend, which included a luncheon in Adams and gave alumni the opportunity to reunite with their old students whom they have not seen in years. One elementary school student even trampled over chair legs to embrace his old tutor, former PBHA President Jose Magana ’15.