Costumes, goodies and prizes at 'Trunk or Treat'
Courtesy photo Arrr! This Captain Jack Sparrow’s treasure was first prize in the age 3-17 category at the Trunk or Treat event Saturday evening.
Cecilia Suarez/Columbia Basin Herald The Columbia Basin Herald’s trunk was more silly than scary, but that didn’t stop kids from filling their goodie bags there.
MOSES LAKE — A crowd of 300 to 400 kids in costume turned out Saturday afternoon for Sportsman’s Warehouse’s first annual Trunk or Treat event, according to Sportsman’s Warehouse office manager Kimberly Bonick.
The event grew out of a sense that traditional trick-or-treating held too many pitfalls for children. “People are more and more cautious on where they’re taking their kids,” Bonick said.
Community members and businesses brought their vehicles, some of them decorated for the occasion, and distributed goodies to costumed kids. There were prizes for the best decorated trunks, as well as for costumes. The costume prizes were divided by age groups, with a separate category for a couple or family. The age groups were originally to be 0-3, 4-10, 11-17 and 18 and over, Bonick said, but because of lower-than-anticipated turnout the middle two groups were combined into 4-17.
The winning trunk family brought several horses painted to look like equine skeletons, and one family member dressed up as the Headless Horseman from Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The kids especially loved that one, Bonick said, and they received a $100 Sportsman’s Warehouse gift card. Grant County Animal Outreach took home a $50 gift card for the best business trunk.
“We figured they could use something in our pet supply aisle,” Bonick said.
Plans are already in the works for next year’s event, Bonick said. The event hadn’t been publicized as widely as it could have been, she said, but next year they plan to get the word out early and have more trunks in attendance.