October 30, 2008

Second annual Community Harvest Festival proves fruitful

Those brave enough to tour the “haunted hallway” at the Harvest Festival got to see the crewmembers dressed in their Halloween best. Photos by Luke Cunningham

By Luke Cunningham
Times Intern

It was a week before Halloween, but ghosts, goblins, princesses and fairies all merged into the Almaden Community Center for its second annual Community Festival.

On Saturday, Oct. 25, a huge costumed crowd met at the center to celebrate harvest and the fall season as well as have some fun and eat all the candy they could find. Last year’s attendance was estimated at 1,500 people, but this year the turnout was even larger, based on ticket sales.

Children and adults both came dressed for the event and took part in various activities hosted by the Community Center. Located in the community room, people browsed through tables offering arts and crafts for purchase from a variety of vendors who heard about the event and wanted to be part of the action.

Outside that room itself, baked goods and coffee were donated for purchase to be used throughout the year to defray costs for the center’s expenses, said Brandon Kwock, youth recreational specialist at the Community Center.

Above: The children had their own room set up with tools and materials to make their own souvenirs. Below: people browse through tables offering arts and crafts for purchase from a variety of vendors.

The children had their own room set up with tools and materials to make their own souvenirs. These crafts allowed them to use their imagination and make some new friends. Outside the children’s area, chairs were lined up for everyone to enjoy holiday story time lead by librarian Barbara Gilbert.

And it just wouldn’t be a Halloween celebration without pumpkins. A local farm brought some small pumpkins and a few stacks of hay to offer the children a pumpkin patch.

Geared toward the older kids, Kwock and his crew converted a hallway that runs between the community center gym and the community room into a “haunted hallway.” Those brave enough to take the tour got to see those crewmembers dressed in their Halloween best.

“I spent most of the time in the hallway. Each time, I try to make it scarier than the time before. I love decorating the hallway. Next year I want to be able to make it [even] scarier for the older kids who come through, and maybe have lighted run-throughs for the younger children where my crew will be less scary and wave to the little kids so they don’t freak out. We try to tell the parents with younger kids to not go through. I think if we can figure out a way to make it less scary by turning on more lights for a few hallway tours so the younger kids can enjoy it, that’d be cool,” Kwock said.

As for the older kids, they’ll have to be prepared for the fright of their life next year.