‘CREEP THE STREETS’ HALLOWEEN DECORATING CONTEST UNVEILED
Nightmare Island volunteers participate
One trick- or-treated until she was 24. Another is an environmental scientist. And another is an online fifth grade teacher.
They come in all makes and models with one common denominator: They like to scare people. More specifically, they love Halloween.
Problem is, since last year’s fires at the Mare Island Preserve and this year’s pandemic, a dozen or so volunteers of the annual Nightmare Island have no place to turn for their fright fix — until now..
Nightmare Island volunteer Cece Castro had the idea of a tricity Halloween house and yard decorating contest in Vallejo, Benicia and American Canyon, with families putting their ghoulish foot forward. And with prizes up for grabs following the judging expertise of gruesome guests doing some drive-by scrutiny of all that is orange and black.
“Nightmare Island’s Creep the Streets: Halloween House and Decorating Contest” is underway, with judges hitting the participating homes on Halloween week.
With last year’s “Nightmare Island” cancelled because of Mare Island Preserve fires and no chance because of the pandemic to secure a suitable site this year, “Nightmare” co-founder Sarah Cain believed the decorating contest “would be a really good way to get our volunteers back together and a way to be socially distanced.”
Cain and fellow coordinators Priscilla and John Paul Fischer hope at least 25 homes are involved in the “Creep the Streets” first year.
“I want to see some kids doing some of the decorating. I want to see re-used materials, ingenuity …maybe people have extra time on their hands now and this is a
productive way to use your time,” Cain said.
Besides, while working on a display, perhaps it’s a way “to keep kids off their phones,” Cain mused.
Cain and about 15 volunteers showed up earlier this week for a photo opportunity around Cain’s personal hearse — “Patty” — as in “Patty Hearse.”
Online instructor Marie Dana couldn’t wait to look ghoulish, coating her face above her virus mask in white.
As a kid, “I was a big, fat scaredy- cat. I learned to love Halloween. It’s now one of my favorite holidays,” Dana said.
“Creep the Streets” is a good thing, Dana added.
“Essentially right now, everything’s a little spooky. This is where you can have a place where you can still enjoy the holiday. It can be a bright light in the midst of darkness,” Dana said, adding that it takes a certain personality to become involved in haunted houses and all that is frightening.
“Just wanting to scare and be scared is definitely part of it,” she said. “You do meet all kinds; shy and reserved like myself and then you meet those who are over the top.”
“It’s fun to scare people,” grinned Marsha Grefsrud, an environmental scientist in real life by a bloodied scarecrow on this day.
“It’s an adrenaline rush when you can catch someone off- guard and you scare them,” Gresfrud said. “Haunted houses are definitely therapy.”
Castro said it “was devastating” having Nightmare Island cancelled, so the decorating contest “means a lot since we’re unable to do the haunt. I’m glad to get together and do something for the community in Vallejo that’s positive.”
Amanda Legaux has loved Halloween since she played “Super Grover” at 8.
“That was the best,” she said, continuing to trick- ortreat until 24.
“I had my two sisters-inlaw who were younger than I was so I just said, ‘I’m here with them,’” Legaux smiled, agreeing with the other volunteers and Cain that “Creep the Streets” is a viable Halloween alternative.
“It’s something positive,” Legaux said.
Judges will base their scores on: Curb appeal, originality in designs, do-ityourself ingenuity, creative props, lighting, sound effects, participation by your youngsters, interactivity of display, and continuity of themes are all BIG parts of what your display will be judged on.
Displays will not be judged on by entrants age range, gender, location, financial restrictions or amount of money spent. Displays may not include nudity, hate speech, politics or inflammatory content.
Judges include: Peter Overstreet, Haunted Attraction Designer & Horror Scholar; Aaron Hartman and Debbie Sherman, Haunt review writers for The Scare Factor as “Team In- Corpse- A- Rated” and admins for the Northern California Haunted Attraction Enthusiasts Facebook group; Chris Riley, Staff Photographer, Vallejo Times- Herald & haunt enthusiast; and Sheena Kawakami, BooZ & BrewZ Do GooderZ.
The first-place award is $100 and spotlight in the Times-Herald. Second place is $50 and third place is $30. There is is also a “People’s Choice” award.
Entrants must have display “up and running” by Oct. 14. Displays will be judged only from the curb.
There is an entry fee of $30 to be eligible for both the cash prize awards and the People’s Choice Award, or pay no entry fee and be eligible for the People’s Choice Award only. Any proceeds go toward the nonprofit Nightmare Island Vallejo.
For more, visitnightmareislandvallejo.com.