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Backus Readies For Halloween 'Treat Street'
It promises to be a spooky good time for the fourth-annual Treat Street event, say organizers.
The Halloween day event is scheduled for 4 to 5 p.M. Oct. 31 at Backus Community Center.
Youngsters can visit several tables in search of Halloween treats, and check out a "haunted house" deep in the Backus basement.
The event is geared toward elementary and junior high students and won't be overly scary, said Robin Bjorkquist, Backus' event coordinator.
"We just thought it'd be a great idea to give the smaller kids a safe place to trick or treat," she said. "Parents just like to bring their kids through here, because it's just a nice, safe environment for them."
Bjorkquist said the 2015 event drew at least 300 youngsters, and 300 to 400 are expected this Halloween.
She said visitors enjoy seeing the unique costumes – including those donned by businesspeople, who will set up shop at about 15 to 20 tables.
"It's very busy," she said. "It's a wonderful use for our community center. Everybody has a great time."
Bjorkquist said Backus will be all dressed up for the event.
"We're just looking forward to more people coming through our community center, utilizing our building and having a good time," she said.
Do you have treats to give out?
Tables are available for businesses, organizations and private individuals wishing to bring in large buckets of candy. A Backus volunteer will hand out the candy if the business, organization or individual can't attend.
"We encourage businesses to share what they have to offer," Bjorkquist said. "But it's just an opportunity for businesses to have their name out there and do something collectively good for our community."
Call 285-7225, send email to backusoffice@backusab.Org, or see www.Backusab.Org for more information.
Originally Published: October 11, 2016 at 9:17 AM CDT
Your Stories Of The Worst Halloween Treats
If you're the kind of person who loves being the number one trick-or-treat stop on the block, we have some essential dos and don'ts to keep the neighbourhood kids from running screaming from your door.
Who better to ask than kids and parents themselves? BBC Food and Bitesize teamed up to ask kids and parents alike the best, worst and just plain confusing treats they've received on Halloween. Be warned – you might find some of the responses quite shocking.
Yes, really. We couldn't believe it either, but multiple people said they'd received a variety of vegetables on the doorstep. "My son was offered a potato as they'd ran out of sweets," said Helen Allen. "He took them up on their offer."
You'd be forgiven for thinking this might be an isolated incident, but no. More reports of veg-based "treats" have come to light. "I remember being given a can of beans once as a child!" said Emily Farnsworth.
And perhaps worst of all, two individual cases of chocolate-covered Brussels sprouts, according to both Sarah Webb and Reecey Roo – a sneaky Halloween trick that can only have been premeditated.
The key question here is, if you're caught short with no treats to hand out, what do you do? Is it better to hand out a potato or nothing at all? Well, we think we have a few better options.
Simple treats at homeA UK poll from 2018 reckons 30 percent of people prefer to make treats rather than buy them from the shops. If you haven't bought in your customary treats, a bit of home baking can really dig you out of a hole.
Our advice is, keep it simple and sturdy to carry around in a bouncing Halloween loot bag. Chocolate is universally popular and it fits the Halloween colour palette! These rice krispie cakes only need a few ingredients, and you can have them chilling in the fridge in half an hour. Likewise, chocolate muffins are an easy win.
Keep in the spooky fun with a Halloween biscuit and scary cookies. If you want to go for full-on confectionary, we have some surprisingly simple homemade sweets recipes.
A word on safetyIt's especially important to stay on top of health and cleanliness, so make sure your treats are well-wrapped if you can. "I think it's gross when people give out sweets without a wrapper on!" says Toni Leeson. Baking paper and cling film both work well in a pinch, or you could get individual little bags if you really want to impress.
It's a good idea to make a nut-free snack, as a precaution. Always be really clear with parents about what's in your homemade treats. Labels on individually wrapped treats can be reassuring. And some parents might not be happy for their child to take a homemade treat, so maybe keep a bowl of potatoes on hand after all.
The great raisin debateAn age old question for those looking to hand out healthy treats – is it acceptable to hand out boxes of raisins on Halloween? We put the question to the social media followers of BBC Food and BBC Bitesize and the results were pretty emphatic.
Raisins are out, chocolate and sweets are in! Halloween is one of a few days in the year when the gloves are off and we eat sweets until we feel a little bit queasy. There's another 300-something days when we can eat raisins.
This rule goes for other fruit-based treats like apples and oranges too. Hats off to Sally Thornhill for owning up to giving out satsumas one year. "I drew pumpkin faces on them and everything," she says. "Sorry to everyone who visited that year." We'd have eaten one, Sally.
That doesn't mean healthy treats are completely out of the window if they don't look too healthy. Justine Pattison's healthy flapjacks, for example, have a boost of oats, dried fruit and less sugar than most sweets. Likewise these banana and chocolate muffins have the best of both worlds: fruit and chocolate.
If you forget, or run out of sweets…There's always time to come up with an outside the box idea! Treats are just one half of the trick-or-treat equation after all – perhaps it's time to dust off your top hat and tails for some magic tricks. Or distract the trick-or-treaters with a family pet. "We did run out of treats and offered cuddles with our guinea pigs instead," said Laura Horton. "All the visiting trick or treaters loved it!"
If all else fails, don't panic. Your odd gift might turn out to be the best gift ever, or a funny story for years to come. "Kids got an Easter egg to share one year," says Gina Appleton. "They still talk about it being the best sweet ever!"
BBC Food and BBC Bitesize users unveiled Halloween treats including old mince pies, tubes of toothpaste, cheesy crisps, dog biscuits and curry sauce, as well as the aforementioned potatoes and tins of beans.
Needless to say, we don't recommend handing out random bits of old food and dog biscuits to trick-or-treaters. The toothpaste was handed out by local dentists on both occasions so that's understandable, but needless to say, you don't have to accept anything you don't feel comfortable with. The most important thing is to stay safe, and if it comes to it, you can always go home and whip up your own spooky Halloween treats!
Originally published October 2021
Girls Turn Halloween Treats Into Holiday Gifts
By Keighla Schmidt, Staff Writer
Emily Lang and Taylor Rentschler got lots of treats on Halloween when their friends came over to celebrate their ninth birthdays. Combined, they had baskets overflowing with new toys.
Even though most 9-year-olds would be ripping into the boxes to get at the new toys, the girls left the 44 gifts unopened and put them in a bin to bring to Toys for Tots — just like they've done for the last three years.
"We want to help people who don't have enough money for Christmas presents," Emily said of their Toys for Tots Halloween Monster Mash.
The girls, who have been best friends since they were 3 years old, have birthdays about a month apart. Halloween falls between Taylor's Oct. 15 birthday and Emily's Nov. 23 birthday.
For the past three years they've decided the princess-, picnic- and beach-themed parties they each had were not what they wanted.
"If we each had our own parties we would have so many toys we wouldn't be able to play with them all," Emily said. "We would maybe play with each one a little, but not a lot. Then we'd end up donating them anyway."
So their parents came up with a solution.
"We thought instead of their own birthday parties we could have one Halloween party," said Emily's mom, Leisa Lang. "We made it an option for them – we didn't want to force it on them, but they decided this was the party they did want."
With Emily at Hidden Valley and Taylor at Redtail Ridge elementary schools, the girls each have a large, and growing guest list.
This year 27 kids showed up at the Lang's home in Savage ready to party. Many were siblings of kids invited to the party.
"If it were a regular birthday party we wouldn't invite the siblings," Leisa Lang said.
Party goers came in costume, the girls dressed as matching corpse brides and the kids went on a haunted scavenger hunt around the house. There were games and music in the garage and festive snacks and decorations.
"It's really fun. It's a lot of work, but it's all worth it," said Emily's dad, Tyrone Lang.
A time usually dedicated to opening the presents never happens at their party.
"We just don't need them," Taylor said.
Like typical girls, the pair loves playing with their American Girl dolls, riding bikes, rollerblading and doing "other best friend things" together. They also celebrate their birthdays with their families and enjoy getting gifts from them.
The Monster Mash guests know the gifts they bring are not for the girls. They're asked to bring unwrapped presents and often bring things they would like themselves.
This year, there were games, dolls, toys, cars, craft games – typical things young children love. And next month the girls will bring the toys to a Toys for Tots drop-off center.
"As a parent, it just makes you really proud," Leisa Lang said. "Everyone likes toys and to get new things, but these guys think of other people and just do nice things."
Keighla Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.Com.
Originally Published: November 6, 2009 at 4:57 AM CST
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