As a high school student dressed in a gorilla costume roamed between cars, kids dressed as superheroes, Disney princesses and even as Bullseye, the Target mascot, went from trunk to trunk in search of candy.

“I [saw] a little girl dressed as a ladybug,” said Student Council President Audrey Ketscher. “She was in a little cart and she’s like a little ladybug — so cute.”

The Dartmouth High School Student Council hosted its first trunk or treat event on Saturday, Oct. 26.

The event came together after a Student Council member thought that hosting a trunk or treat would be a “great way” to do some community outreach, said Caitlin McCarron-Deely, a teacher at Dartmouth High School who helped organize the event.

Student Council started organizing their first trunk or treat event in September, but Ketscher said the idea had been in the works since the spring.

“We started planning as soon as we came back to school, really,” she said.

Halloween music played as kids went from trunk to trunk, but that was not all. Kids could also get their faces painted, play games or enter a raffle to win a gift card to a local business.

“We went around to local businesses, which were very supportive of us, to get gift cards,” Ketscher said.

Many community members were also interested in getting involved.

“We’ve had cars signing up basically until yesterday,” Kertscher said. “So we’ve been really working hard on this for a long time.”

Student Council members designed their trunk in a Jurassic Park theme, which Kertascher said was her favorite.

“[I’m] a little biased,” she admitted. “But I’m personally very proud of it.”

Some of the cars were put together by Student Council members and others by clubs, parents and other interested community members, McCarron-Deely said.

Harmony Pires, whose daughter is a Student Council member, handed out candy from the back of her car, which was decorated in a pumpkin patch theme.

Since this was the first year Student Council hosted a trunk or treat event, many of the volunteers handing out candy weren’t sure how many kids would show up.

“We’ve been very excited to see how many people are here, just in general,” McCarron-Deely said.

In just the first 30 minutes of the event, more kids came to her car than she expected there to be at the event, Pires said.

“It’s been going crazy,” she said. “I’m nervous now that I’m going to run out of stuff.”