Downtown Lewisburg didn’t have Halloween trick-or-treating this year. The weather was fine, but concerns about COVID dictated a cautious and creative approach and so the Market Street Mask-A-Rade was born. We should all be taking that example to heart and thinking about how to apply our public health glasses to the upcoming holidays and re-envision them as well even if only temporarily.
The standard trick-or-treating model features a lot of situations and practices that are not particularly advisable for populations dealing with COVID. Whereas we should all be focusing on short term, distanced, masked interactions with limited numbers of people, ideally outdoors and away from our homes, trick-or-treating is all about confounding all of that: lots of people of different ages and from different households engaging in fairly close face-to-face interactions, handling huge numbers of items in common, and opening the front doors of their houses to crowds in the streets. It also can lead to quite packed sidewalks, drifts of people spending time together in large groups, eating in public, and house parties.
Even costume masks have the potential to disappoint from a public health perspective. Although Halloween is ostensibly a time for wearing face coverings, they don’t tend to be of a sort that might be reasonably relied upon to reduce the spread of droplets and aerosols.
In light of all of this and the knowledge that so many things have been ruined by COVID restrictions this year, a team of organizations in Lewisburg Borough went to work on relatively short notice with the goal of safeguarding public health AND saving the holiday. Lewisburg Borough lead the effort with major involvement from Lewisburg Neighborhoods, the Lewisburg Downtown Partnership, the Campus Theatre, the Lewisburg Children’s Museum, and the Lewisburg Area School District Elementary PSA. The alternative event took place for most of the day on Saturday, October 31, starting at 11am and running through 7pm in order to spread out the usual crush of people over many hours. It took place in many different outdoor areas around Market St, which also helped to reduce crowds but still provide for a festive feel. In lieu of trick-or-treating, the organizers asked for sponsorships and donations and, thanks to generous support from 11 business sponsors including premier sponsors EXP Realty and RE/MAX Bridges, and over 50 private individuals, were able to provide over 800 bags of candy for our costumed visitors.
In addition to the candy give-away, there were various other destinations around town. As they traveled around, the visitors themselves, decked out in their Halloween best, became a key part of the show themselves. You could get slime kits from the Children’s Museum, candy at the gazebo, and safety items at the Hotel; plus families could take part in a Scavenger Hunt. Almost 70 groups started the hunt and more than 20 made it to the end – then we did a drawing among those who completed it and offered prizes of Downtown Dollar gift certificates or the life-size movie monster posters that were on display in the Campus Theatre windows during the event.
There were also different opportunities for the surprising characters on parade to ham it up, whether for the live cam on the Orange Carpet under the marquee at the Campus Theatre or in front of the backdrops set up on S 6th St and N 5th St. This wasn’t a literal parade, with the likelihood of bringing too many vulnerable people too close together, but had the benefit of still operating like a parade on film, whether you review the event photos or the Orange Carpet footage (highlights reel on the way!). Even with distancing many parts of the community are able to participate, either as remote spectators or as support/volunteers. One backdrop was the result of local effort and talent from the Lewisburg Area High School art program. The frame supporting the backdrop was made by Lewisburg Builders Supply. And Oberdorf's Carpet One provided the Orange Carpet.
All of this was a great deal of fun, in fact reportedly “the most fun ever had downtown” for one 5-year-old. So much so that there seems to be general agreement that we should do Halloween like this (in addition to the usual trick-or-treating of course!) in future years, even without COVID. In other words, in spite of COVID, the holiday was rescued. It was admittedly a great deal of work. It was also inspiring to see how everyone came together while working to keep people safe. As such it really is a model for the other big holidays to come...
Thanks again to our partners and sponsors!
