A large contingent of Ames parents and children braved the rain and cold weather Tuesday night for the Ames community trick-or-treat night.

Also a part of the evening’s festivities were two groups from the ISU community. The Army ROTC and Acacia Fraternity volunteered their time to walk neighborhoods between 6th and 12th Street, east and west of Duff Avenue.

The two groups were asked to volunteer for the project by Tom Shelton, community resource officer for the Ames Police Department.

“We like to have these groups because we aren’t always able to be there,” Shelton said. “They are another set of eyes and ears that are able to help us out.”

Shelton said the two groups are being used to patrol neighborhoods and assist with any problems that might come up.

“We are using these two groups to help people cross the streets, and look out for anything that could be a problem,” he said. “They are also there to make sure that big kids aren’t picking on the little ones.”

The Ames Police Department has asked groups for help with trick-or-treating since 1997. Shelton said the department has received a lot of support from ISU groups in the past.

“It is just nice that we have groups that like to do things like this,” he said.

“We usually don’t have any major problems with trick-or-treating. We use them just to be more preventative.”

This year was a first for Acacia.

“We just came to campus last year, and just got our charter this year,” said Chad Tweeten, athletics director for Acacia and senior in agricultural business.

“We are starting seven straight days of community service, so when Officer Shelton approached us, we were willing to help any way we could.”

The Army ROTC has participated in the project in the past, said Will Hanna, ROTC cadet captain.

“We have been volunteering to do this for at least the last four years,” said Hanna, senior in management.

“Every year, I just get in touch with Tom, and tell him that we would like to do it again.”

The two groups began walking the neighborhoods around 5:30 p.m., and were scheduled to be on the streets for about two hours.