MIDDLEBURY — Community promoters know that Halloween is a BIG deal for kids and they didn’t want to let the coronavirus ruin the holiday. So the folks at the Better Middlebury Partnership, in association with Addison County Home Health and Hospice, planned a Drive-Through Trick-or-Treat in Middlebury.
Business members of the Partnership sponsored 19 stops at local businesses and prominent locations. Then kids dressed in their costumes, climbed into their cars and minivans and parents drove them to each of the stops where volunteers doled out individually bagged selections of candy.
All those handing out candy wore masks, of course, as well as gloves, and the kids stayed inside their cars, often still strapped in their car seats. Mom or Dad, often also dressed to the nines, would pull up, roll down the car window and children shouted “Trick or Treat!”
It was a lot of fun for the kids and for those giving out the treats, who mostly wore costumes as well. And the candy came from Shaw’s.
At the Addison Independent we had more than 200 cars drive through with at least two kids per car and some with many with more. We would have run out of candy if Karen Duguay of the BMP hadn’t stopped by with even more candy.
The cars arrived between 4 and 7 p.m. Most of the trick-or-treaters were small kids, but the ages ran a little older as time went on. Most of the kids were excited to have their photos taken, as well as to get bags of candy.
It’s fair to say that COVID-19 didn’t ruin this Halloween.