Families enjoy downtown spooks at Trunk or Treat 11/1/2009 12:08 AM
By RACHEL JOHNSON Staff writer
Thousands gathered on Newberry Street on Saturday with one thing on their minds: candy.
The third annual Trunk or Treat hosted by the City of Aiken Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, in collaboration with the Aiken Downtown Development Association, drew record crowds to the Newberry Festival site for an evening of ghostly fun.
The annual festival geared toward children 12 and younger provides a place for families to celebrate Halloween in a safe and fun atmosphere. Twenty-three businesses and organizations set up shop in the trunk of vehicles and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters and participated in a booth decorating contest.
"It can be described as mass fun," said Barbara Gassman, tourism supervisor. "It is cute to see all the kids in different costumes in a safe environment and not on the street."
"I am so happy the weather held out so everybody was able to come out and have a good time. I love to see the kids," Alicia Davis said.
Trunk or Treat not only featured trick or treating but also carnival games, food vendors and costume contests for a variety of ages and even pets.
The winners of the parent and child costume contest stole the hearts of the judges with an 11-person group costume depicting Alice in Wonderland.
Beating out a family dressed in a Star Wars theme to claim first place in the competition was the Ergle family for the second consecutive year.
"We became a manufacturing company today, getting the costumes together," Dana Ergle said. "We started preparing the costumes yesterday. Last year, we were the Wizard of Oz, and I knew we had to do something to top that. We dug around in thrift stores and around our house to put these together."
Ingenuity reigned in this year's costume contests. In the children's contest, a handmade costume of felt and a flower pot stole the hearts of the judges and the crowd as Eden Smith claimed first place.
Though many have attended the event since its inception, others participated for the first time.
"The event has been growing every year. It is definitely very popular," Gassman said. "It is hard to predict how much candy to bring. We are grateful to all of our sponsors and everyone who participated."
Contact Rachel Johnson at rjohnson@aikenstandard.com.
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Comment Title:
What a precious flower! She is absolutely beautiful! CR
Posted by: On: 11/4/2009
Comment Title:
These people complaining about the candy are so used to getting handouts from the government I guess they expect it everywhere they go.
Posted by: On: 11/3/2009
Comment Title:
I participated in passing the "cheap candy" out and would like to say to the ones complaining, that myself and coworkers were treated very rudely by the children and their parents. Giving us dirty looks and making comments about the candy we were giving out. Also, I was appalled by the parents taking their children through the line 3 and 4 times. Maybe this is why there wasn't enough to go around.
Posted by: On: 11/2/2009
Comment Title:
I would just like to point out that the businesses had to purchase the candy that was passed out and I know that our busiiness personally spent $150 on candy and that was just enough to pass out one piece for each child. We also spent a lot of money on decorations and not to mention the time. In return we got no advertisement, no pics in the paper, and the winning trunk was not even mentioned in the paper. This is not a way to encourage businesses to participate. We stood for 2 hours to pass out candy, put days of work into preparing,and put out our own money.
Posted by: On: 11/2/2009
Comment Title:
This was awful. There was not enough people to make it worth it for the kids. Better luck next year Aiken.The whole night was spent in line to get around 10 pieces of candy.
Posted by: Ang On: 11/1/2009
Comment Title: first and last
I took my 3 boys last night for the first time and will NOT go back. The games were not manned properly, and then we walked back and forth trying to figure where the line actually started and some people just told us to get in line with them. and my boys got less than 15 pieces of candy it is was all stuff that was the cheapest possible to get. NOt worth the 1 1/2 hours we spent there.
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