MULGRAVE — Mulgrave’s town council has backed away from a controversial decision to replace traditional trick or treating this Halloween with a community “trunk or treat” program, featuring shelling-out stations at three designated locations.
In a Facebook post last week, Mulgrave’s recreation department stated that “due to the volume of concerns from the public about the event that was planned… Halloween will move forward as normal with regular door-to-door trick-or-treating as requested.”
Several residents had objected to the trunk or treat replacement program – which council had approved at its Oct. 3 meeting as a way to make Halloween more affordable for seniors on fixed incomes – as high-handed and “sad.”
Last week’s recreation department post did note that “a smaller-scale trunk or treat event will run on Saturday, Oct. 28, from 2:30-4:30 p.m., at the Mulgrave Fire Dept. and the Memorial Center parking lots,” but added: “In the coming weeks, we were going to be sharing [that the original night] was going to include music, a possible haunted house, [and] a scavenger-hunt- style stamp card for the children to complete and submit at the end for prizes… With all that said… council has made the decision to cancel.”
If the post was designed to placate members of the community, it raised almost as many hackles — garnering 36 mostly querulous comments – as the first announcement.
One resident responded: “When the [first] post was put out there, nothing [was] said about a haunted house or music. The way it was stated was, ‘You go to the three designated parking lots and then go home because door to door wasn’t going to be allowed.’ In my opinion, they were taking the fun out of Halloween for the kids.”
Added another: “They should [have provided] the full details. This may have been a fun evening if the full details [had been] put out there, as well. Maybe, next time. Like the saying goes…Think before you speak.”
Another wrote: “People should have [had] the choice: Go to the trunk or treat or do the door to door or both, even!!.. Cannot believe some take all the fun out of everything good.”
A request for comment from Mulgrave’s CAO David Gray was not returned by press time.
By Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Oct 18, 2023 at 05:35
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