Orphan Holiday

This October students host neighborhood children in the residence halls and the Chiles Center for Halloween fun.   The basement of Shipstad Hall, scary enough in normal times, is decorated as a Haunted House.  And Trick-or-Treat events are scheduled for monsters, princesses, and characters from Frozen (college students as well as visitors in costume) on Halloween Day.

The seed of these celebrations, from an earlier slice of time, is the annual Orphans’ Christmas Party.  From as early as 1948, University of Portland student run service groups sponsored and hosted Christmas parties for children from St. Mary’s Home for Boys (Beaverton) and Christie Home for Girls (Oswego).  The tradition was maintained into the 1960s by the Associated Women Students, bringing as many as 100 orphan children to campus each year for this holiday event.   Then, as now, the festivities were almost as much for those who give as for those who receive.