Jessiah McDougal, a DCHS senior, joins the ranks of Oberlin high school students who have led the annual Halloween Clean-Up, a community service project that started in 1926. Every fall since then, DCHS students along with the Oberlin Elementary 5th and 6th graders have helped the community by raking lawns.
This year's captains are Weston Barnes, Jack Holloway, Makadyn Ketterl, and Michaela Wasson. (A list of generals and captains is at the end of this article. There you will find several family connections.)
According to one source, the discussion of a Halloween clean-up actually started a year earlier in 1925 at a Hi-Y meeting (Decatur Dictator Oct. 31, 1932). Hi-Y was a “club of boys whose purpose was to maintain a high level of conduct in school by creating, keeping, and spreading throughout the community high standards of Christian character.” Their purpose was to “build a four square, abundant life, full of wholesome activity and fun.” They held weekly meetings with discussions vital to their lives. Their motto was “We Build Better Men” (1926 DCHS Yearbook).
At one of their weekly meetings in 1925, the boys discussed the destruction around town on Halloween that had happened and what they should and should not do on Halloween. According to a 1932 Decatur Dictator, Marshall Traxler, a sophomore at the time, asked ‘Why not do something about it instead of sitting here talking?’ (Decatur Dictator Oct. 31, 1932).
Before the next year’s Halloween, the boys of the Hi-Y talked with the G.R. (the Girls Reserve, which was girls’ group similar to the boys’ Hi-Y), and the idea of a Halloween Clean-Up was born. The two groups with the help of Principal Caleb Smick got the whole school involved as well as the upper grades at the elementary school (Decatur Dictator Oct. 31, 1932).
But according to the 1987 yearbook, the idea originated when Principal Smick “and a popular high school quarterback were talking about something the students could do to show their appreciation for the free transportation to athletic games, which local businesses provided, and the loyal support for all school activities. And so the idea was born” (1987 Red Devil Yearbook).
A 1962 article in the Salina Journal had the same story: “In 1925 Caleb Smick was visiting with a member of the high school football squad who said he felt businessmen of the community should be applauded for their loyal support of the school. Out of this conversation grew the Halloween Clean-Up, tried successfully the following year” (Salina Journal Oct. 28, 1962).
Lester Kirkendall, a 1924 DCHS graduate, a DCHS teacher from 1927 to 1933, and the first principal at Oberlin Grade School, wrote a paper about Oberlin’s Halloween Clean-Up while he was an Associate Professor of Family Life Education at Oregon State College. Dr. Kirkendall also participated in five Halloween Clean-ups while he was a teacher at DCHS. This may have been where the 1987 yearbook and the Salina Journal got their information.
In this paper titled “A Halloween Idea that Went Places,” he wrote that the “Oberlin pupils turned the traditional vandalistic, mischief-making Halloween activities into a community-improvement project. Raking the lawns of elderly, infirm residents, carrying delicacies to shut-ins, and cleaning and making forgotten corners respectable in appearance were central features of the original plan.”
“In my early professional experience, I was naive enough to accept the explanation that the idea was spontaneously evolved by the pupils. Several years experience in teaching and directing extra-curricular activities convinced me that some careful planning must have preceded the initiation of the plan. By that time, Superintendent Smick had passed away, and so I could only make inquiries and piece together evidence and reports of the original plan.
“It finally became obvious that Superintendent Smick had devised the original plan and had been successful in making it operate by observing several fundamental principles in human relations.
"First, Mr. Smick had a genuine faith in the ability of the students to accomplish things beyond the capacity of adults. “His success in convincing the pupils of their ability to make a unique contribution to the solution of the Halloween problem was the decisive factor in putting the plan across.
“Second, he managed successfully to make the youth leaders feel that this idea was theirs. They persuaded other boys and girls that this was actually their project and that they could make unique and striking contributions in their own right.”
He also built community support and interest - even though city council members expressed skepticism that the students could carry out the plan. However, the city council did support the project by promising to provide hotdogs after the clean-up (Kirkendall, Lester. “A Halloween Idea that Went Places").
Regardless of whose idea it was, Halloween Clean-Up began in 1926 and has continued to this day with success for 98 years.
This is the article from a 1927 Decatur Dictator (October 31, 1927):
TO OBSERVE HOLY EVE
PLAN OF MISCHIEF REVERSED TO ONE OF GOOD
Traxler To Head Good Deeds Army Assisted by Captains and Lieutenants.
“To celebrate Hallowe’en as brownies instead of goblins, in the same spirit as last year, was the vote of the student body in assembly, Tuesday, morning, October 25. Marshall Traxler has been elected general to lead the “good deeds” army, which is composed of four divisions.
"Each division is commanded by two captains, giving the title of captain to eight students, Dorothy Paddock, Edwin Hitchcock, Charles Paddock, Marjorie Stevenson, Herbert Dyer, Helen Johnson, Ernest Buffington, and Mary Waddill. Each division is divided into squads with a lieutenant in charge of each squad.
“Plans have been made to cover every section of Oberlin tonight in the advance against disorder, leaves, and tin cans. Grass will be burned, yards raked, cans hauled away, and alleys cleaned in the onward march of the good brownies.
‘A clean town by 10 o’clock’ is the slogan.
“The alumni have been invited to join the forces, and the mayor and city council have received an invitation to the bonfire jubilee and feast after the work is done. Twenty-five dollars or the money usually spent for extra police will be donated by the council to buy buns, weenies, pickles, and marshmallows.
“To reverse the original meaning of Hallowe’en and make it a night of help instead of mischief was the idea originated in the Hi-Y last year. A challenge was sent to the G.R. and accepted. Last year October 31 was a night of happiness for all Oberlin.
‘The way in which the school took hold of the Hallowe’en idea last year was the supreme experience of my school teaching career,’ said C.W. Smick in assembly Tuesday.”
Since 1926, not much has changed with Halloween Clean-Up. Students in grades 5-12 spend a few hours around Halloween raking lawns. The teachers choose five seniors as captains to lead the cleanup, and then the student body chooses the general, who organizes the event, from those five. The town is divided into four sections with each captain in charge of one of the quadrants.
To help supervise, each captain chooses a lieutenant from his group, which consists of two classes who work together to rake up and load leaves into trucks. The leaves are then dumped.
Today, the seniors work with the 8th graders, the juniors with the 7th graders, sophomores with 6th graders, and freshmen with 5th graders. This way the same group is working together for four years. But up until 1970, the freshmen and 8th worked together, sophomores and 7th graders were together, juniors and 6th graders, and seniors with 5th graders.
Even the town whistle blows at the conclusion to send all of the kids back to the high school for hotdogs and apples, which the city still provides.
From a 1932 Decatur Dictator: “The city council, although a bit dubious of the practicability of the new idea, have cooperated every year. They supply buns, wieners, and apples to treat the Samaritans when the work is done” (Decatur Dictator Oct. 31, 1932).
In 1934, city council provided 125 POUNDS of hotdogs, 1200 buns, and five bushels of apples for 700 kids. In 1937, the city provided 200 POUNDS of hotdogs, 1500 buns, and five bushels of apples. In 1958, an estimated 400 kids helped with the clean-up and ate about 1000 hotdogs. (To compare - today, the city buys 200 hotdogs and 200 buns for about 150 kids.)
A bonfire was often the finale of the clean-up, but now the leaves are dumped. In 1929, “yards were raked, cans taken to the dump, and leaves taken to the city park for the bonfire at the final gathering” (Decatur Dictator Nov. 4, 1929).
From 1931: “Armed with rakes, pitchforks, and baskets, the pupils of both schools advanced upon the leaves of fall and scoured the yards of widows and shut-ins. . . After all the trucks, which were kindly loaned by the townspeople were loaded with leaves, they were all taken to the old Tourist Park and unloaded upon piles of boxes and turned into a smoldering fire. Around the fire the whole group of workers gathered” (Decatur Dictator Nov. 2, 1931).
In 1934, the “leaves were hauled to the Woolley farm, instead of being burned” (Decatur Dictator Nov. 5, 1934).
Another change is if people today want their yard raked, they simply call the high school and get on the list. In the Decatur Dictator from 1932, anyone wishing to have their lawn raked placed a lighted candle in a front room (Decatur Dictator Oct. 31, 1932).
In 1967, an editorial appeared in the Decatur Dictator about students’ indifference in the DCHS tradition: “In the last few years, interest in Clean-up has lagged. More attention is paid to goofing off and roaming around than raking leaves. Few yards look as if they have been raked, and increasing numbers of lawns look worse than before the students arrived.
“Students of DCHS should put forth a special effort to make Clean-up as big in 1967 as it was in 1927. The effect of Cleanup on the community can be improved or destroyed by the attitude of the students of DCHS. Let’s make 1967 the greatest year for Clean-up yet” (Decatur Dictator Oct. 24, 1967).
Sixty-seven years after that editorial, we still have a clean-up with an average of 20 yards raked.
The Student Council in 1947 tried a different approach to choosing the general. Rather than teachers choosing the captains, the Student Council nominated two seniors and two juniors – Wayne Hanslip, Ray Brown, Gaylord Shields, and Don Waldo. “Boxes were placed in the hall, and pennies put into them. Each penny counted one vote. The candidate with the most pennies in his box was the general” (Decatur Dictator Oct. 20, 1947). Wayne Hanslip (pictured) was the general that year.
It wasn’t until 1988 that DCHS had its first-ever female Halloween Clean-Up General – Sandi Elwood. The names of the senior girls didn’t even appear on the ballot until 1985. From the first years of the clean-up through the 1930s, however, girls could serve as lieutenants. The general chose a boy and girl from each class as lieutenants, but they were not considered for captain or general. For instance, in 1927, Dorothy Paddock, Marjorie Stevenson, Helen Johnson, and Mary Waddill were chosen as lieutenants.
According to the 1985 yearbook “Halloween Clean-Up began as usual, with the election of the general. But the discussion of who could become general was raised when girls asked if they too could be put on the list of contenders. The girls, indeed, were put on the list, but traditionalist teachers, who choose the general and his captains, chose not to have a female officer – not just yet. The female population does believe their time will come.”
Since 1988, there have been nine other female generals: Sherri Elwood in 1992, Danielle Bailey in 1999, Lauren Fortin in 2006, Lacey Ream in 2007, Jessica Fredrickson in 2009, Carissa Wentz in 2010, Brittney Wesley in 2017, Brynna Addleman in 2021, and the 2023 general – Ana Freeman.
The weather has also always played a part in the annual clean-up. Some years the leaves are still on trees by Halloween, so the clean-up has been pushed into November, but some years it’s the cold or moisture that dampens the efforts.
In 1969 with Larry Brown (pictured) as the General, the “Red Devils again launched a Halloween Clean-up program. Adverse weather kept the program from being carried out, however. Apples and hotdogs were served after the Pep Parade” (1970 Red Devil Yearbook). But in 1972, “despite freezing rain, the DCHS annual Clean-Up was held” (Decatur Dictator Nov. 9, 1972).
In 1991, there was a clean-up, which was led by Steve Krause, but because of the cold, the time was shortened, and the hotdogs were served in the cafeteria, not outside.
In 1997, the clean-up was postponed twice because of weather and then finally canceled. But a general and captains were selected - Tyler Roe (pictured), Trena Dejmal, Aaron Fall, Chris Post, and Brandon Carr.
An article from 1958 stated that the “annual Halloween Clean-up was started in 1926 by the Hi-Y with the idea of cleaning up instead of tearing up. Except for a few years, the Clean-up has been a yearly event since that date” (Decatur Dictator Nov. 17, 1958). There are several years where I couldn't find documentation of a clean-up, so was the annual event not held at all those years? A list of generals and captains is included at the end of this article. If you can fill in any of the gaps, please let me know by emailing me at brendabreth202@gmail.com.
Assuming that there was a clean-up every year since 1926, this year would be the 99th annual Halloween Clean-Up. (Somewhere along the line, the number of clean-ups has been incorrectly counted. The following chart may help clarify:)
1926 - 1st
1928 - 3rd
1930 - 5th
1935 - 10th
1950 - 25th
1975 - 50th
2000 - 75th
2020 - 95th
2022 - 97th
2024 - 99th
Next year will be the 100th Annual Halloween Clean-Up
