East Haven Rotary Club held their annual Trunk or Treat at East Haven Town Beach and the baseball field, “The Pit” on Saturday, October 29th from 5 pm to 7 pm and exceeded expectations.
As soon as 5 p.m. hit, the parking lot was packed with kids in a variety of costumes. Many people participated in decorating their cars, too. Participants even decorated a fire rescue truck, a school bus, and motorcycles.
A Trunk or Treat event is when participants bring their cars to a location, usually a parking lot, and decorate their cars. Kids will then walk from car to car, collecting candy. These events have become increasingly popular in recent years.
The Rotary Club Trunk or Treat is organized by co-chairs Joan Adamczyk and Ann Pennington. Ann attends the Town Beach event and Joan attends at “The Pit.” To get the word out, Ann and Joan contact people who have previously participated, they share on social media (specifically Facebook) and now, most of it is “word of mouth.” Ann says that now “people come to [them] wanting to do it,” considering the Rotary Club has now been doing it for three years. There is no limit to the amount of people allowed to participate, but all participants must let Ann or Joan know that they plan to do so. Decorators should also preferably be members of the East Haven Community. On the day of, decorators show up one hour prior to the start time, in order to have time to decorate.
Some of the themes of the trunks included space, the ocean, NASA, graveyard, haunted ship, and even Christmas. Many others were decorated with just Halloween things such as bats, skeletons, spider webs, pumpkins, witches, and black and orange decorations. The most popular costume was a police officer. There were also many blow up costumes, princesses, and superheroes. There were some themed costumes among families as well, such as The Flintstones and Stranger Things. Dogs were even welcome to attend. A favorite of many, especially the kids, was the dog Milo in the hot dog costume.
This Halloween, many said that there were very few trick or treaters going from house to house. Some people speculate that this might be because Trunk or Treats are more convenient and safer for many. The Rotary Club specifically has the Trunk or Treat on the weekend prior to Halloween. Ann says having the Trunk or Treat on the 29th rather than Halloween, which fell on a Monday, would make it much easier for people to attend. The Trunk or Treat events often start when it is still light out, no one has to cross the street, and there is typically a police presence. Some attend the Trunk or Treat as an additional Halloween activity to Trick or Treating but many claim that Trunk or Treats are what is “killing” Halloween. Others say Trunk or Treats are a much safer alternative.
