Yearly Jack-O’-Lantern Jubilee Halloween Festivities Brought to the Community by Joint Interdepartmental Effort

For four years, Warren County Parks and Recreation has partnered with the Department of Social Services to bring the spirit of excitement during the Halloween season to young people and their families in Warren County. On the evening of Thursday, October 24, beginning at 6 p.m., the track in the vicinity of the Old Warren County Middle School lit up with activity as droves of creatively dressed youngsters visited the vendors with their parents and enjoyed the bounce house set up on the playing field.

A crowd of young people come dressed up for a night of pre-Halloween fun on the track adjacent to West 15th Street. Royal Examiner Photo Credits: Brenden McHugh.

This is a free event for the community. According to Rachael Walker, Aquatics and Instructional Coordinator for Parks and Recreation, last year boasted a turnout of roughly three hundred children. “We invite businesses from all over to come and decorate their tents, give out candy, and do arts and crafts with the kids,” she said. “It’s amazing, every year.” She spoke with enthusiasm about the “inflatable race” beginning later in the evening, wherein everyone wearing inflatable costumes, including county personnel like herself, raced from the forty-yard line to the goal line. Then, she elaborated on the role Parks and Recreation plays in the community. Their responsibilities include a basketball league, a summer swimming activity, renting the softball and baseball fields, senior gaming, as well as year-round classes in subjects like Red Cross, Spanish, and sewing. “We do anything we can to get the county involved,” she said, “kids up and moving around, parents hanging out with their kids, playing games.”

Avery Sealock poses as Cinderella.

Tiffany Walker, Director of Parks and Recreation, is in keeping with the department’s Harry Potter theme on Thursday evening.

The theme selected for Parks and Recreation this year was Harry Potter. Tiffany Walker, Director of Parks and Recreation, was dressed to look like a teacher from Hogwarts. She personally identifies with Hufflepuff. In the past, she said, it has merely been their duty to man the bounce house and facilitate games like the inflatable race. However, this year, they wanted to do something special, and came up with the idea of having wands for the children and the sorting hat, which in J.K. Rowling’s universe is placed on the heads of new students who after the hat does its thinking, are placed in the school house that the hat says is the best fit for them.

Kids having a blast in the bounce house.

“We just love people coming,” Nicole Johns, program coordinator for the Department of Social Services, said. “We love having the public here, we love having the community here, the vendors and the nonprofits. It’s just a great get-together.