“Trunk or Treat” enters the Greenwich Halloween scene in a community-wide event to be held at the First Congregational Church, across from Binney Park, on October 20 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. The family-friendly event will feature candies, healthy treats, food trucks, cemetery tours, a costume ball and a car trunk decoration contest.
Bringing “Trunk or Treat” to Greenwich was the brainchild of Patrick Collins, Associate Pastor ofChildren, Youth and Families at First Church. Collins previously served as Youth Director at a church in Lincoln, Nebraska, where these safe and festive seasonal events have been popular for years. “The Trunk or Treat phenomenon has moved slowly from the Great Plains and Midwest toward the East Coast,” says Collins, “as more and more communities welcome the opportunity to gather and celebrate Halloween in a safe and enclosed environment.”
Community members who wish to decorate the trunks of their cars and provide individually wrapped candies for the children should contact Patrick Collins or visit the church website by Tuesday, October 16, to reserve a space. The best three decorated trunks, as voted on by the children, will win a prize, and all contestants will receive a voucher for a free meal at one of the food trucks at the event, including Wendy’s Weenies and Chef Tony Delicias.
All other families will receive treat bags for the children to collect candies from each decorated trunk, and participate in a variety of fun activities, for an entry fee of $10 per family.
All proceeds from the event will be donated to local charities supported by First Church.
How do you decorate a car trunk for Halloween? Collins suggests picking a theme for your vehicle and your costume.
“The less your vehicle looks like a car, the better,” he said. “I happen to have a bright orange car, so I’m decorating it to look like a Jack O’Lantern! But there are countless family-friendly ways to decorate your vehicle.” Since many of the trunk-or-treaters will be preschoolers and toddlers, participants are asked not to use scary, bloody or violent decorations.
This year will be the first for a community-wide Trunk or Treat in Greenwich, but if our region follows the national trend, it certainly will not be the last.