It’s that time of year when pumpkins and cobwebs are seen on the front porches of Florida’s capital city. Kids of all ages dress in costume, looking to score some candy, and enjoy a Halloween night trick-or-treating.
Earlier in the week Sabal Palm Elementary School welcomed 22 vendors for its 7th annual trunk of treat. Kids in grades pre-K to 5th enjoyed costume parades, music, sno-cones, face-painting and cookie decorating.
Cynthia Covington is a business owner and mentor with Big Brothers, Big Sisters, a community partner of Sabal Palm, and she’s on campus every week.
“I know that if they [students] didn’t have this opportunity, he [the mentee] probably wouldn’t get to go trick-or-treating or otherwise have his costume on and so for some of the kids I feel like this is just a way for them to feel very normalized and have a great holiday.”
In the college community, Florida State’s Interfraternity Council Community Service board hosted its own Trunk-or-Treat Wednesday. The event took place at the FSU Lakefront Park known to students simply as the REZ. Each fraternity and sorority decorated cars and handed out candy to families in attendance.
“And so we do a lot of events for students, and that cohort, or that community and really wanted to give back to our faculty and staff and just like everybody else who’s like kinda involved with FSU,” said Assistant Director of the Lakefront Park & Challenge Program Bay Bennett.
Just a half-a-mile south of Doak Campbell Stadium, families and college students alike can enjoy the Terror of Tallahassee. The Halloween destination is billed as the capital city’s “premiere” haunted house attraction. The crew has been scaring Tallahassee audiences since 1999—each year, open 13 nights.
WFSU caught up with terror expert Kurt Kuersteiner, owner of the house,
“Well, I love the fact that we’re basically paid to prank people, and they want to be pranked” he said.
“Everybody who comes here wants to be scared. Now they have no idea how scared they’re actually gonna get. And a lot of them sit there and go wait a minute–I didn’t sign up for this. I thought I was signing up for that.”
On November 1st, the Terror of Tallahassee will host Lights Out Night, featuring the typical spooky season scares in pitch black. Attendees are given a single glow to light the way. Tickets are available for purchase at the door or online at terroroftallahassee.com.