Theme: Halloween

October 28, 2013 at 10:12 am · Filed under stories, sunday setup and tagged: chicago, Halloween, Treat Street, Trick-or-treat, Willow Chicago

The legendary team of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox.

At Treat Street, children participate in fun activities, such as jumping rope, for tickets that can be redeemed for CANDY!

Children decorate pumpkins with markers and stickers.

Gru (pastor Jon) and his minions (sons)!

Face-painters decorate children’s cheeks with spiders, hearts, and spooky designs.

Emcee Darren (a worship-team member) spins hits and dishes tickets between rounds of the Cha-Cha Slide.

This aerial shot shows almost everything — the bounce houses and inflatables are just around the corner!

< by Jill >

This weekend, Nate and I dressed up as Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. We hopped from bus to taxi as we made our way to Doolittle Elementary School for a church-sponsored Halloween celebration known as Treat Street.

The goal of this annual event is to provide children with a safe place to accumulate tons of candy — say, enough to cause a tummy ache or strain a bicep. In short, Treat Street gives kiddos a normal Trick-or-Treat experience.

Doolittle is located in the neighborhood of Bronzeville, which ranks 23rd (of 77) in terms of theft, burglary, and other property crimes (Chicago Tribune). Although this are has seen a 60% reduction in violent crimes since last year, it’s still not the safest place for door-to-door candy collection — and really, this is true of most neighborhoods in Chicago. To rewrite this story, Willow Chicago Church created Treat Street.

On Saturday from about noon to 4 p.m., Nate and I circulated the school grounds and helped in whatever way we could. We hauled tables, set up concessions, painted faces, snapped photos, and mingled with superheroes, pirates, princesses, and ghoulish creatures. Even our pastor joined the fun. Honoring our congregation’s vote, he adopted the persona and getup of Gru (Despicable Me). His sons played minions—check the gallery!

When the event wrapped up, every child departed with a bright-yellow bag teeming with candy. I daresay it was better than going door-to-door, because nobody had to worry about dentists!

Check back throughout the week for more Halloween posts!

Comments