Instead of spending dozens of hours and thousands of dollars decorating floats for a two-hour homecoming parade, some fraternities and sororities have found a way to re-budget their time and money toward a different cause.

Six greek organizations — Kappa Alpha Theta, Pi Beta Phi, Sigma Phi Lambda, Phi Delta Theta, Phi Gamma Delta and Sigma Alpha Epsilon — have combined their float budgets and will host a Halloween carnival, “Ghouls, Ghosts and Greeks,” from 6:30 to 9 p.m. inside the Community After School Program’s administrative office located at 1023 N. Flood Ave.

“We felt it was important that we don’t just give our money away but actually serve the community, too, in a hands-on way,” said Hayley Spencer, Kappa Alpha Theta homecoming chairwoman.

Spencer, letters junior, said they are expecting 870 students from their greek houses to be working at the carnival throughout the night, and 700 kids from the after school program are expected to be in attendance.

There will be free food, face painting, a moon bounce, Trunk-or-Treating and an optional spook house hosted by OU’s greek community members, according to a press release.

“It has been great to see how excited United Way has been to see what we’re doing,” Spencer said. “Our members are getting to contribute to something that is bigger than themselves.”

She said the houses participating in the carnival will still walk in the parade and present a check to the United Way of Norman when their names are announced.

“We’re looking forward to directly meeting the needs of the Norman community through our homecoming efforts,” Spencer said. “And we’re still participating in homecoming wholeheartedly.”

Spencer said the homecoming chairs from each house have talked about the future of the homecoming floats for them, and although they haven’t made a definite decision, she said they are excited to see what will happen in years to come.

Kely Van Eaton, Campus Activities Council chairman, said he thinks the basis for these groups wanting to do the philanthropy instead of a float is to give more money to their philanthropy.

“The float competition is a big tradition within CAC, and we would like everyone to participate in this,” said Van Eaton, industrial engineering senior. “We know we can’t monitor everyone, but we just want to make sure that it doesn’t take away from the overall event.”

Haris Choudry, homecoming chairman for Phi Delta Theta, said he thinks this is a positive thing they can do for the community.

“Everyone’s GPA has probably improved from not having to pomp,” said Choudry, molecular archaeology senior.

He said they are still participating in all other homecoming activities, including a flag-football tournament, the dance, banner and South Oval sculpture competitions.

“It’s basically just one event we’re not participating in, but we’re participating in everything else,” Choudry said.

Alissa Myers, president of Kappa Alpha Theta, said all the fraternities and sororities have put their full hearts into this carnival because it’s for a noble cause.

“I think doing a service event with the philanthropy is great because the service event directly affects the kids,” said Myers, economics senior.

Myers said all of the excess funds from the carnival will be donated to the United Way of Norman.

“I think this is such a noble cause and so timely that we have chosen to use our funds in this way, and it just adds to the homecoming event as a whole,” Myers said.

Clark McCaskill, broadcast and electronic media sophomore and member of Phi Delta Theta, said he thinks these houses have done a great job staying involved with the homecoming activities even though they aren’t doing a float.

“It’s a great opportunity to give back to the community and not waste $6,000 on a float,” McCaskill said.