After months of mask-wearing, virtual learning and social distancing, Halloween will look different this year. The thought of multiple hands in candy bowls, unwashed fingers ringing doorbells and tiny witches and zombies running around unmasked worries the East community. However, this didn’t stop moms, neighborhood leaders and East students from coming up with ways to give kids a COVID-friendly good time this Oct. 31 — whether that be in-person, or virtually.
With the unsureness of what Halloween would look like this year looming over her, Briarwood mom Amy Hughes talked through some ideas with a few of her neighbors. They had the intention of finding a way to provide their kids, and the others on the street, with some Halloween fun, while still staying healthy and safe.
The neighborhood bunch had been together all summer — moms, dads and kids included — so they knew they’d feel comfortable spending the holiday within their confined group.
After getting approved by the city to block off the street, the moms took to text chains and living room gatherings to come up with a plan. Different from typical Halloween door-to-door tricking and treating, their street party will provide candy bags for the kids. There will be a table located at the end of one of the driveways, where they can collect their items.
“We know that the actual trick-or-treating is what they love, we just don’t want them going door-to-door,” Hughes said. “But we’re gonna put together some pretty kick-butt candy bags.”
The neighbors have also arranged for a food truck to be parked on the street, where American style food will be served. There will be a firepit, s’mores, a costume parade and spooky games for the kids.
“We’re kind of just doing our own thing,” Hughes said. “The kids will still get to dress up, obviously. We want to keep it private, but still do something fun for the kids.”
Pack of Pals, a SHARE program where volunteers get to hang out with fellow classmates with learning disabilities, will hold a virtual Halloween party over WebEx. According to Pack of Pals’ leader and senior Ava Peters, Halloween is a favorite time of year for many of the members and volunteers. In past years, the group would meet up at someone’s house and trick-or-treat for cans instead of candy, to work as a can drive.
The loss of this time-honored tradition made it important to Peters to find something special for the group to do this year. With trick-or-treating for cans out of the picture, Peters and one of her fellow Pack of Pals leaders, senior Lauren West, wanted to do something virtually.
“I texted Lauren and said, ‘Maybe we could do a Webex Halloween event, costumes and all,’” Peters said.
West and Peters continued to elaborate the plan, deciding to ask the volunteers and participants to wear costumes. They’re coming up with spooky Halloween and name games to play with everyone.
After the virtual SHARE Care Fair event, the girls had a list of volunteers who they contacted to see who would be open to join the fun during the afternoon on Oct. 31. The girls hope that Pack of Pals events will grow over the year, but for now, they’re providing a lot of students with a Halloween celebration.
One of the many thrills of the Halloween tradition for kids is trying to get to as many houses and gather as much candy as possible before their parents need them home. And many parents wanted to keep that element — at least in some regard — this fall season.
Tom Hipp, a member of a local East neighborhood’s board, was contacted by one of the neighbors in early September. A mom had come up with the idea to put tables at the end of each driveway, with individual candies spread out. The families of the neighborhood are being asked to sit six feet behind the tables with masks on, allowing them to still visit with trick-or-treaters and see all the costumes, while staying socially distant.
“That way, there’s not a bunch of hands going into a candy bowl, kids can go trick-or-treating, show off their costume and everyone can have fun,” Hipp said. “I thought that was a great idea.”
In response to the idea, more neighbors and families began to chime in on other protocols to include for the night.
“Another [neighbor] mentioned Children’s Mercy Hospital had put out some guidelines on how to trick-or-treat [with] COVID safely, so we incorporated that as well,” Hipp said. “We made up a casual email to post to the neighborhood, outlining those guidelines.”
Some of those guidelines are keeping parties and candy outdoors, limiting the number of houses visited, wearing a face mask and avoiding trading candy with friends and neighbors.