November 1, 2007

Cornucopia of fun

First annual Harvest Festival a rousing success

By Jeanne C. Carbone
Staff Writer

The first annual Harvest Festival at the Almaden Community Center provided something for kids of all ages.

Pals Casey Coleman and Carina Cefalu are excited to choose the perfect gourd at the pumpkin patch.

The Pumpkin Patch featured plenty of the orange gourds, the haunted house was spooktacular, the food was tasty and there were plenty of crafts and story times for the costumed kids. Adults could also start early Christmas shopping with plenty of original arts and crafts. And a raffle offered special items for their own use or maybe a basket for a gift as well.

“I want to thank everyone for being here,” said Almaden Community Center’s Jamie McChristian, who orchestrated the event. “This event at the Almaden Community Center is put on and funded by the Youth Advisory Council. We’ve never done anything like this before.”

Of special interest was Grandma and Grandpa’s haunted house that brave souls entered winding and wending their way through darkened hallways filled with ghouls and goblins. Almaden Senior Program and acting Halloween witch Torie O’Reilly and her helper, Ralph Nunez, warned the brave guests “to stay with the tour guide, we don’t want to lose anyone.”

The guests, who made it out of the haunted house, were eager to buy raffle tickets from Doreen Jurado and Stephanie Habian. The bake sale volunteer coordinator Beverly Temkin provided home-baked tasty treats for the hungry throngs.

Grandpa plays a spooky piano at the haunted house.

Many of the adult guests dressed in costume as well with Almaden Library manager Pam Crider disguised as Little Red Riding Hood. Others came as themselves like Almaden ceramic artist and teacher Avideh Yaghmai-Samardar, who showcased her brightly glazed pottery and Nellie Rouhani, who came with her abstract paintings. But there was more, with plenty of handcrafted jewelry, photography, leather and knitted goods and paintings presented for early Christmas shopping.

“We heard about this at the library,” said Almaden resident Dawn Coleman, who brought her 18-month-old daughter Casey dressed as a fairy. “We had to come.”

Her friend and neighbor Gretchen Cefalu brought her 20-month-old daughter to the to choose a pumpkin, listen to story time and make some Halloween crafts.

“Carina wanted to be a fairy, too,” said Cefalu. “This is a lot of fun. I hope they have it next year.”