Thinking Ahead: Halloween In February

By Kendra Bobowick

Neither as frigid as Father Winter’s chill nor as frightening as the season’s banshee winds is a more buoyant discussion about next October.

Resident Chuck Stofko, who last September and October had attempted to rally a Halloween Committee in support of the Main Street homeowners who put significant effort into Halloween, is again striving to rekindle the effort that never truly caught fire last year.

He invites volunteers, supporters, and Main Street residents involved with Halloween to join him in an upcoming brain-storming session on February 13 at 7:30 pm at the Senior Center.

“We’re laying the canvas out to discuss what colors to put on it, we are going to put our heads together,” he said.

Planning a Halloween Committee meeting for next week, he hopes interested residents will join him to talk about the brighter side of All Hollow’s Eve. He said, “Basically we want to get people together and get a consensus, and I invite volunteers and those who live on Main Street to come.”

He hopes a plan will emerge and a process will begin for bolstering those who literally pay into the Trick-Or-Treat experience for Newtown’s ghosts and goblins. Hundreds of children with bags to fill will haunt the street at the first sign of darkness and into the evening until roughly 9.

“We’re trying to help the people of Main Street who hand out an estimated 2,000 pieces of candy,” Mr Stofko said. Last year, more than 2,000 ghouls flooded Main Street, according to homeowners maintaining a tally of trick-or-treaters. On October 31, 2006, John Reed answered his doorbell from as early as 4:15 pm through to 9 pm, counting as many as 2,053 visitors. Even the police department was scrambling to keep up with the flow. Police Union President Andy Stinson had filled a shopping cart to overflowing last year in preparation for the Witches and Warlocks who trampled the sidewalks in search of candy.

“That wasn’t enough,” he had said. Despite the roughly $500-plus they spent on candy, police officers twice had to run out for more during the night to replenish their sugary stash.

“It’s amazing how many kids come,” Officer Stinson had said.

Mr Stofko’s earlier first attempt to build a support base for the Halloween frenzy that surges along Main Street on October 31 may have come too late in the season, he suspects.

“I am not going to be caught off-guard this year,” he stressed. Contact him at Newtown1031@yahoo.com, or call him 203-241-2448.