‘Tricks, Treats and Discoveries’ is theme of medical campus neighborhood Halloween party

Trick or treat, “frightfully fun” face painting and a clinical trial that’s all about cookies are some of the activities that neighborhood families will enjoy at a Halloween party from 1-4 p.m. Oct. 28 in the UB Downtown Gateway building, 77 Goodell St., Buffalo.

Free and open to families living near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC), the party is being hosted by UB’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and Patient Voices Network, a patient-empowerment partnership between UB’s Department of Family Medicine and patients from local UBMD Family Medicine practices.

Parents and caregivers are invited to bring costumed children to the Gateway building for an afternoon of Halloween-themed activities, games and prizes.

“The purpose of the event is to bring the university community and the surrounding community together for a day of fun and learning,” says Laurene Tumiel-Berhalter, director of community translational research in the Department of Family Medicine in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, and director of community engagement for the CTSI. “It’s an opportunity for our neighbors to learn more about clinical and translational research on the medical campus and across UB, and for UB to open its doors to the community.”

“Tricks, Treats and Discoveries” is one of several outreach programs the community engagement team is sponsoring this fall. A luncheon program last month brought together UB researchers and community leaders to strengthen existing ties and create new connections.

“We want to hear from the community what their needs are and what we in the research community can do to improve health outcomes and reduce health care disparities in the region,” Tumiel-Berhalter says.

Activities will be staffed by UB researchers and students from the medical school and the schools of Nursing, Dental Medicine, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Public Health and Health Professions, as well as UB’s research partners on the BNMC.

Activities include:

• A “Cookie Clinical Trial” demonstration, where participants are volunteers in a controlled experiment to determine the optimal cookie characteristics, experiencing firsthand how clinical trials are run while enjoying the fruits of their research.
• The “I Put a Spell on You and Now You’re Under My Microscope” station, where budding scientists use microscopes to create their own slides and identify samples of leaves, pumpkins, apples and other seasonal materials.
• A life-size skeleton puzzle that introduces basic anatomical concepts in a fun and engaging way.

Trick-or-treaters who complete all the stations will receive prizes.

Formed in 2010 with patients from three large, urban, family practices in Buffalo, Patient Voices Network is a community group that works with health care practices and biomedical investigators to guide research projects and improve approaches to recruiting and disseminating information about research.

The mission of UB’s CTSI is to improve health and reduce health disparities in the Western New York community through the development, testing and sharing of novel approaches to health care. The program is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under award number UL1TR001412.