Musical Trick or Treat: Halloween with The Franklin Band

In the fall of 2023, The Franklin Band hosted a community event to give back to families in the Franklin area for their support during the 2023-2024 marching season. We invited families to join us for an evening of music, costumes, and trick-or-treating. The event was held on October 30th in the evening after band rehearsal. Each section of the marching band dressed in themed costumes and performed music. The sections spread-out around the school track and families with children in costume visited each section, listened to music, and received candy. Many families participated in the free, fun, festive event.

Our primary goal was to give back to our community in a way that would engage families in the area. We are fortunate to have robust support from our Franklin community and we take great pleasure in finding ways to celebrate with our community in ways that allow us to share joy in music.

The evening was also an opportunity to showcase how much fun participation in the band is for prospective members. It gives an opportunity to highlight how much band members enjoy being with each other and how much they enjoy sharing their artistic gifts with the community. In keeping with this, we made instruments available to children to try out and ask questions about as they made their way around the trick-or-treat loop.

We also hoped the evening would serve as an event that would be fun for our student members; they work very hard throughout the season and we wanted to be sure they had an opportunity to celebrate their music and enjoy each other’s company.

Our Franklin community is exceptionally supportive of our band program. Their support enables the program to achieve excellence in music and artistry. We are overjoyed to find ways to pay this forward by giving back to the community that supports us so well. Modeling gratitude and thanks is something that our program takes very seriously; one hope is that others are able to take this lesson back to their daily lives.

Our most central core value is community; we shape and are shaped by the community we are nestled within. Since its inception (in 2020 during COVID), the event has been a way for our band community to engage and entertain our local community. The joy is shared in a bi-directional manner; with band members enjoying the children’s costumes and smiles and the community members enjoying the music (and costumes) of our band.

A second core value of our band is advocacy, we are committed to being advocates for music education even in our everyday interactions. The musical trick-or-treat allows us to showcase the beauty (and fun!) in music to young children who are just starting their musical journey. It also offers our students a fun way to advocate for music education by showing how much enjoyment they have with their music.

Another core value of our band is enjoyment in the music. The musical trick or treat event is pure joy for both the band members and the children who come to hear the music (and collect some sweet treats).

In late September, the booster board met as a group to begin their planning. The VP of events took the lead on the event and her first task was to find a parent volunteer (outside of the board) to organize the event. Once this was accomplished, the parent volunteer reached out to families in the band and asked that every family contribute a bag of candy in the two weeks before the event occurred (candy was stored in the band room during this time). During this same period, the parent volunteer worked with the booster parent in charge of publicity to get the word out about the event (using social media posts and press releases to local news outlets). On the evening of the event, parent section leaders provided decorations and distributed candy during the event so that the band members could play music while the candy was being distributed.

1. Our Booster Board VP of Events helped to find the parent volunteer and worked with her to plan and execute the event. An hour or two a week.
2. A parent Volunteer who took the lead on the event was responsible for communication with parents, publicizing the event, soliciting candy donations, and helping to organize everyone on the evening of the event. 5 hours per week the two weeks before the event.
3. Section parents (approximately 10-12) who decorated each section’s station for the event, made sure the candy bowls stayed full, and handed out candy to children at the event. 3 hours on the day of the event.
4. Our Booster Board VP of Publicity worked with the parent volunteer to publicize the event on social media and through local news outlets. 3 hours across the entire month period.
5. Parents in the program who donated candy. A half hour tops.
6. Franklin Band Members who dress up and play music (or spin flags, if they are in guard) during the event. An hour and a half.

The band’s three social media accounts (@thefranklinband on facebook, instagram, and X) were used to publicize the event. A parent volunteer made advertisements to be shared on these outlets. Emails and a parent newsletter were used to get the word out to parents. We used large plastic tubs to store candy and wagons on the night of the event to distribute candy to the stations. Parent volunteers brought folding tables and halloween decorations for the evening.

The event was broadly advertised on our band’s three social media accounts (starting roughly three weeks before the event), in a local paper (The Williamson Herald), and in our school announcements. Judging by the amount of candy we distributed, these efforts were highly successful. We estimate that 150 families visited the musical trick or treat in 2023.

Little to no cost.

The only obstacle in the Fall of 2023 was the weather. The evening was chilly so we had fewer participants than we had hoped. The students and families participating kept the music going and the candy flowing to maintain the positive atmosphere at the event.

The measurement of success for this event is the number of attendees (which is estimated by the amount of candy we distributed) and the laughter and smiles we generated. Based on these two metrics, the event was a huge success with a lot of laughter and smiles from both participating band members and the children who attended. Families also thanked us for the event as they trailed out.

2023 was the fourth time we held the musical trick-or-treat and it was very clear from the families who participated that it is an event they have started to look forward to. Because this event is primarily geared at giving back to the community and communicating our joy in the music, we see the attendance, the smiles, and our band member’s willingness to dive into the event (during what is undoubtedly the busiest time of their season) as evidence the event is having a positive impact on our local community and the culture of our marching program.

Our one piece of advice is to be sure you are ready for how many families are going to be interested in attending. Be sure you have enough candy!

We look forward to continuing to host this event for our community. One addition we are considering for next time is to add a small movie screen so that children who wander through the trick-or-treat line can also see some spooky cartoons!