More treat than trick: Moses Lake drive-in Halloween draws large, distanced crowd
EMRY DINMAN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years AGO
Samantha, in pink, and Lucy, in purple, hand candy to a trick-or-treater Saturday during the Moses Lake Business Association's Drive-thru Halloween event as their mother, Acashia Crowell, dressed as Pennyworth the clown, watches over them.
Young volunteers hand out candy at the Moses Lake Drive-Thru Halloween event Saturday.
An excited trick-or-treater grins her way through downtown Moses Lake Saturday.
Kids eagerly accept candy at the Halloween Drive-thru Saturday in downtown Moses Lake.
MOSES LAKE — Under the baleful glow of a full moon, downtown Moses Lake was filled with little goblins and ghouls Saturday as more than 100 families packed into their cars and participated in the Moses Lake Business Association’s Halloween Drive-thru event.
Like basically everything in 2020, it was a compromise. In a typical year, Moses Lake’s miniature monsters and superheroes would have been walking past tables and booths set up through the downtown business area, occasionally knocking on business doors themselves to have their buckets filled with candy, said MLBA Director Brandon Nicholas in an interview.
But organizers realized more than a month ago that, more than seven months into the pandemic, Halloween was going to be yet another regular occurrence that was going to be a bit more irregular this year, Nicholas said.
“Given the current circumstances, we were trying, originally six weeks or so ago, trying to figure out what we could and could not do while being responsible at the same time to the community,” Nicholas said. “What we were seeing was that doing a drive-thru type of thing was a good way to go about keeping people as safe as possible while actually putting on an event.”
As families cruised slowly through downtown, volunteers with local organizations like Grant Transit Authority, New Hope and Grant County Fire District No. 5, or local businesses like Brookdale Hearthstone and Help-U-Sell popped handfuls of sweets into the outstretched buckets and pillowcases of local trick-or-treaters.
“I was pleasantly surprised, I think it went very smoothly overall and I was pleased to see a lot of smiling faces given the current situation,” Nicholas said. “I think it just gave people an opportunity to get out of the house and actually do something.”
But while the event was a success given the obstacles created by the pandemic, organizers are looking forward to a return to normalcy next year, Nicholas added.
“We’re looking forward to going back to more of a traditional trick-or-treating next year, though we might possibly add more to trick-or-treating itself,” he said. “I’m glad how well it went this year, but we’re definitely looking forward to getting back to normal trick-or-treating next year.”
Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.
