On Tuesday, Oct.14, DECA held a “Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat” event at Hays High School, in front of the “HAYS” sign. The group collected donations of canned goods and other non-perishable food items for those in need in Hays.

“Trick or Treat So Others Can Eat” first started as a DECA project in 1985, and the group has continued to host it every year since. Several students participated, as well as 27 organizations throughout Hays.

The event requires a lot of planning ahead – picking a date, finding organizations that want to participate, creating advertising/promotional posts on social media and throughout town, making maps and information packets for participating organizations and donors and finally collecting, counting and sorting the donated items.

“The most stressful part of the entire thing is seeing how many cans we actually collected,” senior Mitzil Carillo, a DECA member, said.

A lot of the DECA members helped sponsor Shaina Prough with the event since it needed such a large number of hands to get the job done smoothly.

“My favorite part was getting to organize all of the cans after the night was over,” senior Aralen Maupin, another DECA member, said, “it was so cool to see how much we actually collected.”

The event had a significant amount of participation and a great turnout, making a very busy and successful evening for the group.

“We collected nearly 9,000 items the evening of the event,” Prough said. “I am very grateful to the Hays community for its generous support.”

26lbutler@usd489.com