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FMU's campus is "A'Glow" at the festival where students and guests could walk through the pumpkin trail, eat, and participate in other activities.

Students, families, and friends flooded FMU’s campus for their second annual FM A’Glow event on Oct. 26 from 5:30 – 9 p.m., which is one of the biggest events of the school year.

Popular food truck vendors came out to help celebrate, and university clubs and organizations, like Phi Alpha Theta, FMU’s history honors society, lined the walkway between the dorms and apartments handing out candy to children and families. Families and students were given ballots to vote on superlatives for the best pumpkin theme and display.

FMU’s Praise in Motion Dance Ministries came out to fellowship with the community and let people know about their upcoming dance events.

The tutoring center not only handed out spooky treats to the children, but also had some music from the Avengers movies to set the mood.

Some organizations went above and beyond with their theme and decorations. FMU’s Intramural Council created an impressive theme for people to admire and walk around. Derrick Young, the director of recreation and evening programs, said they wanted to outdo themselves from last year.

“When we found out that we could have a theme too, we wanted to really go all out and win again,” Young said.

This year their theme was a pumpkin graveyard. They built an entrance to their graveyard where kids could go in and get candy. The kids were amazed and spooked by their impressive display.

“Last year we were asked to come out and participate,” Derrick Young said. “We did because it was something different and we ended up winning first place for the scariest pumpkin.”

The Teaching Fellow’s organization enjoyed handing out candy to families and students.

Teaching Fellow’s member Amanda Montgomery enjoyed being able to get exposure to being around little children because ultimately their future careers will involve working with children.

“It is such a joy getting to see the kids smiling and having a good time because for us this experience is more than just handing out candy,” Montgomery said.

The Villa’s RAs incorporated FM A’Glo was part of their Area Wide Program that they put on every semester.

RA Breonna Brown, Kaliyah Johnson, Marisa Sams and lead RA Deion Jones served candy and smiles to the students and children.

“Our Area Wide Program is geared towards getting as many students as possible out of their dorms and involved on campus,” Johnson said. “We figured this would be the best way to get students out and show them that the school does host really cool things on campus.”

Student Life Specialist Alex McGill, along with other members of Student Life, helped to set, decorate and coordinate the event so students could have a great time.

The event is credited to the office of Student Life; however, the communications department, facility workers and other departments helped to make sure the event ran smoothly.

“It literally takes months to get this event coordinated, so we really appreciate and want to thank everyone who helped and was involved,” McGill said.

A week before the event, members of Student Life took pumpkins to the different elementary, middle and high schools in the area so that they could decorate them for the event.

Briggs Elementary, Dewey L. Carter, Royal Elementary and other schools all carved and painted pumpkins.

The kids ran through the trails stopping to take pictures in their costumes with the blow-up figures that decorated the walkways.

Henley Thompson, a third grader at Brigg’s Elementary, came out with her mom and friends from different schools to look at the pumpkins they decorated.

“My favorite part was looking at all the cool pumpkins because there were so many of them,” Thompson said.

Royal Elementary school was very creative and made pumpkin candy sticks.

The night consisted of many fun events for everyone to participate in. The pie eating contest attracted many people. People gathered around the tables to watch the contestants dig in and shove their faces in the pies so they could eat them as fast as possible.

Victoria Atlas, a member of Kappa Delta, won first place and was given a whole pumpkin pie.

“Even though I don’t really like pumpkin pie, I really liked this event because I am really competitive,” Atlas said.

The next event that took place was the glow run. Children, parents and students signed up to take part in the race.

The race was a remarkable experience for the bystanders who got to see the runner’s glow as they passed by.

Logan Zieus, a senior at Ridgeview High School, finished the race with an impressive time and received a trophy for first place.

Zieus came along with his mother, Jodi Zieus, an assistant professor of education at FMU.

Winning the race was easy for Zieus because he runs cross country for his high school and said he is interested in running for FMU.

Overall, the event had a huge turnout and the FMU family and community did not let the rain stop them from enjoying a good night of fun.