Thousands turn out for trick-or-treat drive-thru
Event allowed businesses, community to celebrate amid pandemic
Halloween looked different in 2020, but Northern Colorado residents and businesses were still able to ring in All Hallows Eve with its most well-known activity — trick-or-treating.
Noco’s Greatest Trick-or-treat Drive-thru Experience, hosted by the Thompson Education Fund, The Ranch Events Complex and My Big Day Marketing and Events for the education fund’s fall fundraiser, took the community by storm in early October, with tickets selling like a rock star was coming to town.
“We were the Michael Jackson of the moment, and we did not expect that,” said Christine Forster, president of My Big Day
events. She added that tick- ets sold out in under 5 minutes of being put online.
Forster said her company was asked to plan the education fund’s fall fundraiser and, like so many other event planners, realized the impacts of the pandemic would play a major role in what they did.
“Ever ything we tried to do in person was just not going to happen,” Forster said. “I feel like I had heard someone laugh about the idea of a drive-thru, and I thought, ‘How could I do that?’”
Businesses could buy a booth to hand out candy during the event. Booths ranged in cost from $250 to $1,000. Forster said the booths alone raised over $15,000 for the Thompson Education Fund.
She said the event was so popular that other cities and states have reached out to her to see how they can recreate it.
During the parade, businesses handed out candy and flyers to support their businesses and give kids and families some trick-ortreating fun.
Ruth Ryther, committee chair for Cub Scout Pack 81 in Loveland and at the event representing the Longs Peak Council for the Boy Scouts of America, said she and Kur t Darby, cub master for Pack 81, were able to get in touch with kids in the community who could potentially join their pack.
“We are always trying to recruit, always trying to represent, and I am a big fan of guiding the kids and getting them in an organization that will really help them out,” Ryther said.
The BSA booth, known as the Lost Scout Mine, had Ryther playing her character Cooky and Darby playing Boss as they joked with kids about brushing their teeth and not picking their noses as candy was passed out.
Anthony Schiro with Ascend Orthodontics, which opened its doors in September, said he talked with some of the event planners about how resilient the local community and its people are. He said events like this allow local businesses to give back to that resilient population.
“I think being able to give anything back to the community and give them a little sense of normalcy in everything that is going on is really awesome,” Schiro said.
More than 700 cars and 3,000 individuals came to the event at scheduled times from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Forster described the event as a sort of backward parade, where instead of having the floats come to the community, the community comes to the float.
Nicole Mccormack came with her husband Geof f and two children to the event. She said this allowed her children to have some fun and a sense of normalcy during a truly unique year.
“I feel like after this year they need as much fun as they can get,” Mccormack said. “I think it is absolutely amazing that they were able to change things up and make it to where families can still enjoy the day and be safe about it and the kids still get lots of candy.”
Alyssa Saint said with so much going on in the world right now, this event has allowed her children to maintain a par t of the fun of childhood.
“They have lost out on a lot this year and so it is really impor tant for me to allow them to still be kids through this chaos and not letting them miss out on the things that we went through as kids and were able to do,” Saint said. “It is cool people are still doing stuff.”
Many of the businesses agreed that, for the kids, the event provided them with a chance to be themselves.
“(Kids) are still getting out, they are still having fun, they still get to dress up, but they are a little bit safer,” Ryther said. “We are all, of course, wearing our gloves and all the candy is more contained.”
But those putting the event together, businesses that got to hand out candy and those that got to drive through and experience it all agreed that the event gave the community a way to celebrate a beloved holiday despite the restrictions and changes brought on by the pandemic.
“I think that the world is in a really tough time right now, and to be able to do something like this is so amazing because the kids do get that experience,” said Dawn Bakken, marketing coordinator for Goings Orthodontics.
Forster said an event like this provided the community with something that they could look forward to and really enjoy.
“There has not been as much (of that) lately,” Forster said. “Knowing it is Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas, this is the season where we are merry and jolly and have all these holidays and all we can count on is change is inevitable and COVID is here.”
Brandon Harrington, cofounder of the Harrington Arts Alliance, showed up to his booth dressed as Stitches the clown with his son Elliot dressed in the alternate Stitches outfit. He said he appreciated everything the planning team did to make this happen because of its importance to the community.
“We (have) to stay festive,” Harrington said. “As isolated as we have been, we still have to stay together as a community and events like this bring us together and show that we are still here for them.”