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The Russells Point mayor suggested local leaders may want to consider changing the way a century-old tradition works here, during Wednesday evening’s quarterly meeting of the Logan County Mayors’ Association.
Robin Reames suggested that Beggars’ Night, the municipally-sanctioned form of trick-or-treating around the Halloween holiday, could be tweaked to make it a little safer for young children.
“We constantly tell our children, don’t talk to strangers and don’t take candy from strangers, and then one day a year we tell them it’s OK to dress up and go up to people’s houses and take candy from whoever will give it to them,” the mayor quoted her village’s police chief, Joe Freyhof, as saying.
“My thinking is we ought to just not have door-to-door. It seems like pure chaos with kids cutting across streets in the dark with costumes on,” Reames said.
But she wasn’t proposing doing away with the holiday tradition altogether either.
Instead, she said many churches are already hosting “trunk-or-treat” events in which children can traverse various cars parked in a parking lot or other public space and get candy in a more controlled environment. If more individuals got involved with existing events or established safe points within their neighborhoods, it might prove to make the tradition safer.
“In Russells Point, I think it could work. If we had about a dozen trunk-or-treat events, kids could walk or their parents could drive between them,” she said. “If you would normally participate from home, you could join in one of the trunk-or-treats.
“Kids love Halloween and I think we should make it as safe as we can,” Reames said.
She suggested that the mayors’ association, which is responsible for setting the date of Beggars’ Night, could promote such an approach for next year’s Halloween observance. This year’s Beggars’ Night, which is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 26, will go on as normal although there are several trunk-or-treat evens and other activities throughout Logan County.
Read complete story in Thursday’s Examiner.
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