Community Halloween Party

Candy matters on Halloween, and this year the kids of East Chattanooga gathered plenty of it out on the ball fields of the Avondale Rec. Center during a true community festival for area families to enjoy! The music from Anthony and Monica Burke kept everyone dancing, interspersed with organized dance teams and contests. Many of the same leaders and organizations represented at National Night Out, earlier in the month, came back again to pass out candy and create a party atmosphere.

Kids were dressed up in costumes ranging from elaborate superheroes to homemade masks and face paint. Olga de Klein said this was her first experience painting on a new canvas: children’s faces! The artist got her first experience with face-painting this Halloween, and it looked like the kids approved her work!

Friends and neighbors chatted while waiting in line for hot dogs and donuts at the food trucks, while the nearby bounce houses, sponsored by Youth and Family development and Sam Jaser of Fast Stop, were a hit with the kids. Behind the fences, the basketball courts and playgrounds were also busy with pick-up games between older kids and adults. The CPD even had a trick-or-treat table to hand out candy bars and greet the happy kids.

Nikki Lewis, organizing on behalf of GHC, says it is the largest event like this that she has yet seen or heard about in the area. An estimated 750 neighbors came and went throughout the event! And despite a momentary scare with a local house catching fire, the Chattanooga Fire Department came to the rescue promptly like the public servant-heroes they are!