Perhaps the largest community service event BC DECA does all year, Trick-or-Can is a three part endeavor for its members: bag assembly, bag distribution, and food collection. All of this was put together by the Brookfield Central DECA Vice President of Community Service, Sami Krutz.

Bag assembly took place after school on Wednesday, October 17th. For this, members attached sheets of paper containing instructions for potential food donors to brown paper bags. Krutz had picked up the bags from a local grocery store the day before. With a surplus of bags in comparison to instruction sheets, extra bags were stuffed into the finished bags in case certain households decided to be generous in their donations. The assembled bags were then stored in the advisor’s room for safekeeping until the following week.

The second part, bag distribution, involved more members. This step required members to drive around predetermined BC neighborhoods and personally deliver the bags to each and every household. While in previous years delivery groups were decided at the event, Krutz organized the groups ahead of time, making sure that there was at least one driver per group. She also mapped out the different routes to ensure that each house was covered, and only once.

Finally, collection took place during Trick-or-Treat, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on October 31st in Brookfield. The groups for collection were also predetermined. For greater efficiency, Krutz made sure that at least one member (the driver in most cases) per route attended both the bag distribution and collection. In contrast to years prior, members this year were expected to knock on each door, with bags only instructed to be left outside if the donors would not be at home during trick-or-treating hours.

While this may have seemed more tedious to the members themselves, it resulted in a greater number of goods collected: some households that either forgot about Trick-or-Can or seemed to have never received their bag were prompted to donate goods when members showed up on their doorstep. As a bonus, members were sometimes rewarded with candy and other various goods, such as pink lemonade, brownies, hot chocolate, and warm apple cider.
Members returned to BC after finishing their route.

There they unloaded their bags, counted the number of items, and reloaded them into Krutz’s car. With over 500 items collected, Krutz’s car was stuffed with paper bags when she pulled out of the parking lot. The goods were delivered to the Waukesha Food Pantry the following day. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and finals the next day, members were unable to create a ‘canstruction’ this year and had to settle for just a group photo. Nevertheless, Trick-or-Can turned out to be a success. Krutz reflects on the event, saying, “I had a lot of fun assembling the bags with the officer team and distributing and collecting them with my friends. I know many DECA members enjoyed their Halloween experience by helping with this event, and I know the food donations will help the food pantry significantly!”