An Airport Tradition: Where the Community Comes Together
For more than 20 years, there has been one night each fall when the hallways of Airport High School look a little different.
The overhead lights go off. Strings of lights begin to glow. Pumpkins, witches, ghosts, skeletons and monsters take over the hallways. Students arrive in costume, tables are covered with candy and before long, families begin making their way through the doors with buckets and bags in hand. It can only mean one thing, Trick or Treat Lane is back.
One of Airport High School’s longest-running fall traditions, Trick or Treat Lane has grown over the years into a community celebration that welcomes approximately 2,000 visitors in a single evening. Hosted by Airport’s Student Government Association, the event will return this year on Wednesday, October 28, from 6:30–8:00 p.m.
While there is plenty of candy involved, the heart of Trick or Treat Lane has always been about something bigger, inviting the community into Airport High School and giving families a safe, welcoming and fun place to spend an evening together.
Long before the first trick-or-treater walks through the doors, Airport students are already hard at work. SGA members spend hours planning and creating the decorations that transform the school. Hallways take on different fall and Halloween themes, with everything from pumpkins and witches to cemeteries, ghosts, skeletons and monsters. Hanging lights, inflatables and student-created decorations fill spaces that, just hours earlier, looked like ordinary school hallways.
When the school’s overhead lights are turned off and the decorations begin to glow, the transformation is complete. Students have a hand in nearly every part of that transformation. SGA members carefully plan hallway themes and decorations, while each grade level chooses a movie or theme for its area. Students coordinate costumes, decorate tables and prepare to welcome the hundreds of children who will soon make their way through the building.
But Trick or Treat Lane isn't just an SGA event. Airport’s clubs, athletic teams and arts programs, along with community organizations and businesses, are invited to join the fun by decorating spaces and passing out candy. Some groups also offer games and activities along the route.
There is no age limit on the fun. That is important to the students who organize the event. Trick or Treat Lane isn't only for young children. Airport's own high school students are welcome to dress up, participate and enjoy the evening, too. The goal is for everyone who walks through the doors, from the youngest future Eagle to current students, parents and grandparents, to feel like there is a place for them.
Once families have made their way through Trick or Treat Lane, the evening is far from over. The Airport cafeteria is transformed into a Fall Festival, filled with activities for families to enjoy together. Guests can find free popcorn and cotton candy, crafts, face painting and temporary tattoos, music, fall games and other activities with free surprises.
A designated family photo area is also planned, giving families an opportunity to capture a memory from their night at Airport, along with photo opportunities throughout the decorated hallways.
Best of all, the activities are free to the community. Throughout the fall, Airport Student Government holds fundraisers to help make events like Trick or Treat Lane possible. Money raised by students is put directly back into creating experiences for the school and surrounding community.
Behind the decorations and candy is another important part of the tradition, student leadership. Trick or Treat Lane gives Student Government members an opportunity to take an event from an idea to reality. Students help plan themes, create decorations, coordinate with school organizations, organize activities, welcome guests and, once the last family leaves, help return the school to normal.
It takes hours of work for an event that lasts just one evening. But when the doors open and students see children walking through the hallways in costume, families taking pictures together and thousands of people enjoying something they helped create, those hours take on a different meaning.
For Airport, that is what makes Trick or Treat Lane special. It is students serving their community. It is school organizations working alongside local businesses and community groups. And it is families being welcomed into the school not for a meeting, sporting event or school day, but simply to spend time together and make a memory.
After more than two decades, Trick or Treat Lane has become part of Halloween for generations of Airport families. Some of the adults now walking children through the decorated hallways once walked those same halls as Airport students. Others may be entering Airport for the first time with children who could one day become Eagles themselves.
For one evening, those hallways belong to everyone. And perhaps that is why the tradition has continued to grow. The candy may bring children through the doors, and the decorations may provide the magic, but the real purpose has remained remarkably simple, bring people together.
The Community Can Help Keep the Tradition Sweet
Of course, welcoming approximately 2,000 visitors requires one especially important ingredient, a lot of candy.
Airport High School is once again asking families, businesses and community members to consider donating candy to help support this year's event. Candy donations may be dropped off at the Airport High School main office.
Every donated bag becomes part of the thousands of treats handed out by students, teams, clubs and organizations throughout the evening.
Then, on October 28, the lights will dim, the decorations will glow and the doors will open once again.
Families will arrive in costume. Students will take their places. Candy buckets will begin to fill. And another generation will get to experience an Airport tradition more than 20 years in the making.
Trick or Treat Lane returns Wednesday, October 28, from 6:30–8:00 p.m. at Airport High School.
Because sometimes the best school traditions aren't just the ones students remember. They're the ones an entire community gets to share.