By Neena Strichart
Halloween weekend went nicely for the Strichart family. We spent Saturday from about 1:30pm to 5pm at the Signal Hill basketball courts doing our part playing volunteer at the city’s Halloween carnival. What a great event. A representative from Community Services told me they had about 800 attendees. Wow!
Where most cities had to cut Halloween happenings this year because of budget issues, folks in the city of Signal Hill were lucky since the event went on in spite of financial concerns, largely due to donations from local businesses and individuals. Those who donated money, candy or volunteer time (or all three) were Amateur Radio Association of Long Beach, Boulevard Buick GMC, Concerned Citizens of Signal Hill, Golden Eagle, Hof’s Hut, Kluger Architects, Lifetech Elevator Service, Signal Hill Employees Association, Relax Medical Systems, Inc., The Home Office, The Signal Tribune, Universal Care, Willow Urgent Care, Gary Dudley, and Sue Churchman.
Usually held from 5pm to 7:30pm on Halloween, this year’s event was different. The city’s powers that be decided Saturday from 2pm to 5pm would be a nice change— especially since Halloween was on Sunday this year.
It was fun to have it during the day since daylight sure helped me to get a better look at the kids’ costumes. I think moms and dads liked the daytime thing too. So many babies and toddlers had the chance to come out and show off their outfits and enjoy the day, but I bet their parents would have kept them home if the carnival would have been in the evening. It does get cold at night and some of the cute costumes aren’t exactly warm. Also, I think holding the event on a day other than Halloween gave kids the chance to wear their costumes more than once, attending a carnival one day and going trick-or-treating the next!but then the point may be to keep kids safer by encouraging them to attend the carnival and skip the trick-or-treating. It’ll be interesting to see what they decide to do next year. The way things were set up this time sure made it easy for Steve and me. We didn’t have to worry about rushing back home to our dogs to keep them from barking at kids running up and down the street gathering candy. That pleasure was saved for the next night— Halloween.
