How to stay safe on Halloween when trick or treating

 

ELKHART, Ind -- Children are anxiously waiting to hit the pavement for trick or treating after most missed out last year due to Covid and parents are still trying to keep them safe this year.

By Friday, neighborhoods will be full of kids with their bags all wanting to get as much candy as possible but safety has been the number priority.

"The safest thing we ask everybody to do is just make sure you wear a mask. It’s the simplest and probably the cheapest way to make sure you’re staying safe as you can," said trick o treat event organizer Antwon Williams Sr.

For many, that could be an issue but organizers say it will challenge people to get creative this year in order to stay safe.

"Usually what I’ll probably do is I’ll have my mask on and then on top of that I would actually just throw my make on top and ta-da, I’m double safe and I’m festive and ready to celebrate," said Williams.

With the event taking place in the heart of downtown Elkhart, the immediate participants are the stores on Main street.

"Unfortunately as you know we weren’t able to do it last year so there’s been a lot of anxiety or anticipation for the coming of this event and were really just crossing our fingers that the weather was going to cooperate because my opinion is it’s going to be the safest for everybody if we’re allowed to have a candy station or able to have a candy station out front that way everybody stays outside breathing more natures fine fresh air," said Stephenson's Store Manager Danny Reynolds.

Of the 20 plus stores participating on Main street, all of them have the option to allow children inside their store or have the candy available outside.

Antwon tells me so far they're happy with the event and are excited after going through the 2020 woes.

"It was kind of hard last year in 2020 because we would get setup with everything and find out what the restrictions are and then we would get notice that we’ve changed from yellow to orange and then the restrictions have changed so we had to adjust the event again so we had to adjust the event again and it ended up happening so many times that weren’t able to actually have the event. But you know I’m glad that we’ve gotten over a lot of those humps," said Williams.

With the events kicking off starting Friday October 29th, the schedule of events across Elkhart County is below for those who wish to participate:

Bristol: Saturday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Elkhart: Sunday, Oct. 31, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Goshen: Saturday, Oct. 30, 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Middlebury: Saturday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Millersburg: Friday, Oct. 29, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Nappanee: Saturday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Wakarusa: Saturday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.