Planners hope this year’s annual Halloween event at Aumiller Park will be even more spectacular than usual.
“It warms your heart, because it’s so happy. It’s fun,” said Kelli Patterson, the city’s administrative assistant and one of the organizers of the event. “I really love going there.”
This year’s Linda Friend Memorial Spooktacular will be from 4-7pm on October 15th at Aumiller Park, 500 Aumiller Park Drive.
Most of the traditional features will return this year, Patterson said.
“The American Legion is cooking hot dogs,” he said. “We’ll have cookies and chips and cider and water and we’ll get pizzas from all the pizzerias in town. So there’s a lot of free food. The firefighters will still be raffling off their bikes.”
Children will be able to decorate pumpkins
The Bucyrus Public Library will help kids decorate pumpkins.
“Instead of doing the traditional bounce houses, we’re going to have three 40-foot obstacle courses for the kids,” Patterson said. Planners hope that this way, children won’t have to wait as long in line. “You can keep them going.”
Ax throwing will make its debut at the event, with The Copper Irons bringing a mobile unit, he said. The company also plans to offer bounce houses aimed at children 3 and under. Castle Auctions and Appraisals will also offer a bounce house for the little ones, along with their putt-putt golf course.
Details will be announced later on a special game that will be added this year. “It’s going to be really good,” Patterson said.
“We have a group from Galion bringing horses,” he said. “They’ve got two bigger horses and they’ve got a couple of miniature donkeys and a pony, and they’re going to paint them in glitter and then the people riding the horses are going to dress up…
“So those are a couple of new additions that we’ve had this year, but we’re always talking to different people — what can you do to get involved, maybe something that would highlight your business as well.”
Shuttle buses to help ease the parking crisis
A big focus for planners this year has been improving the parking situation, which in the past has gotten “a little chaotic,” Patterson said. About 1,000 people attend the event each year and parking is very limited.
This year, Ondego Unlimited and SCAT (Seneca-Crawford Area Transportation) will offer shuttle buses between Aumiller and the Mennel Milling Bucyrus parking lots, 970 Nevada Road; and Bucyrus High School, 900 W. Perry St.
People are asked to go directly to one of the off-site car parks, rather than coming to the park to see if spaces are available.
“We’re just going to keep running buses from 3:45 to 7:15, just running those buses non-stop,” Patterson said. “We can get people to come and go when they need to go … that way, the parking situation, the bus situation is under control.”
Patterson said he is looking for volunteers to help with parking and shuttle buses.
Also looking for businesses, civic organizations, churches or others interested in having a shelter or tent at this year’s event. He has been reaching out to groups that have had shelters in the past.
Decorating these shelters is such an important part of the event that it has become a competition.
Arctic Cat has won the decoration contest for 3 consecutive years
“Whichever group decorates and has the spookiest spirit, we’ll just call it that, wins the traveling trophy,” Patterson said. Arctic Cat has won this trophy for the past three years.
Patterson said she encourages people decorating a shelter to incorporate business logos and find ways to highlight what the business does.
“Take all that out,” Patterson said. “I want these kids and I want these families to see who these businesses are that support all the activities, the events that take place in our community. That’s what we’re made of. That’s what we do.”
For more information or to get involved, call Patterson at the mayor’s office, 419-562-6767, ext. 221; or send an email to admin@cityofbucyrusoh.us.
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