Bakersfield College will be hosting this year’s Trunk-or-Treat event on Oct. 27 in parking lot 3 from 5-8 p.m. The event will feature festively decorated trunks which will be handing out candy to children and providing information and resources to parents/guardians as well.

While the event is a Halloween festivity, it is also in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month (DVAM). The event will provide a chance to better educate the community on intimate partner violence and therefore prevent any possible future incidents or assaults within the community.

Adrianna Oceguera, BC’s Campus Prevention Education Specialist, is overseeing the event for the second year now. She is inviting the community to participate, targeting an attendance of around 1,200 people which is an increase from last year’s estimated attendance of 1,000 individuals.

She also urges participation from student clubs, as the previous year’s event featured a total of 24 trunks, of which 12 were student organized and 12 were community organized. A competition will be held for the best student-led trunk, best group costume, and best overall costume in the kids, youth, and adult categories. Prizes will be awarded to the winners.

Oceguera established the need for DVAM awareness and prevention, especially noting that 20 people every minute experience a case of intimate partner violence.

Additionally, she noted that 26.4% of female students and 6.8% of male students experience rape or sexual assault, while 23.1% of transgender, genderqueer, nonconforming (TGQN) students experience a case of sexual assault during undergraduate work.

Oceguera’s goal is to reach “0 assaults” and “0 incidents” on campus, through the application of the social ecological model that starts with educating the individual and having rippling effects across a community. The model will be on display at this year’s trunk-or-treat.