Halloween drive-thru trick or treat fun

By Dale Woodard on November 2, 2021.

Herald photo by Dale Woodard Dean Moyer, as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, and wife Lani Hicks, as Oscar the Grouch, give out treats at the third annual Halloween Drive Thru Trunk or Treat Saturday evening at Exhibition Park.

Trick or treat. Pull ahead.
Halloween-themed music blared and costumed crusaders happily doled out candy Saturday evening at Exhibition Park.
In this case, however, costumed kids coming up the sidewalk were replaced by a line of vehicles with trick or treaters nestled inside as the Third Annual Halloween Drive Thru Trunk or Treat hit high gear.
“It’s a free event for the community,” said Chris Plumb, president of Bikers Building Bridges, who hosted the event. “We have about 325 cars registered to come through, so we’re looking at about 800 kids or so. So we’ll be running through here until about 8:30 tonight if we don’t run out of candy or cars.”
On Saturday, participating businesses in this year’s Trunk or Treat set up shop throughout the parking lot, dispensing the Halloween goodies to each passing vehicle while paying heed to proper health protocols.
“This year we’ve got 30 trucks,” said Plumb. “We’ve actually doubled in size since last year and lots of local businesses are here helping us. It’s lots of fun.”
Trunk or Treat began in a parking lot on the north side.
“We had about five or six trucks and a whole lot of kids came,” said Plumb. “We had it at the exhibition last year just to keep it a little more controlled so we could estimate the numbers that are coming in and work it a little bit better. This year we doubled yet again, so we had to move it to the bigger parking lot. We’re hoping to grow it every year and keep it going.”
Trunk or Treat began as an initiative to give kids a safe environment to trick or treat when the city was dealing with the issues of needles in the community and other crime.
“So we wanted to offer a parking lot where we could clean out the area and make sure it’s safe and enclosed and watched by adults and kids could go back to how trick or treating used to be,” said Plumb. 
Trunk or Treat was converted to a drive through last year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“So we couldn’t have it as a walk-through,” said Plumb. “The drive-thru seems to be working well. The kids have a lot of fun inside (the vehicles). They’re listening to Halloween music on the radio and they’re going to leave with quite a bit of candy.
“I’m glad it caught on. My birthday is on Halloween. We’re hoping to keep it alive.” 
Bikers Building Bridges began in memory of Plumb’s daughter, Kelly, who had Aicardi syndrome.
“She passed away a few years ago,” said Plumb. “So we started this to fundraise and help donate back to the community and back to kids, especially (kids) with disabilities. So we’re working with families within Lethbridge to help them buy equipment they normally can’t get to get more accessible bikes. (For) a child we’re working with right now, it’s a trailer for him to be able to go on bike rides with his family.”
Bikers Building Bridges does fundraisers throughout the summer, including community barbeques.
“All the donations from that go back into our group so we can put it into our fund to help kids with disabilities,” said Plumb. “We do our annual Superhero Ride For Kelly and the funds from that go into the fund for kids with disabilities. Throughout the year we do different stuff as we see the need.”
Bikers Building Bridges has also worked with the Green and Yellow Group, who helped with this year’s Trunk or Treat as well as Bikers Building Bridges-Lethbridge’s other initiatives and events.
“We’re hoping to move forward with them as well and just grow a good community of people who want to help with the kids in the community and want to help fix issues that are happening,” said Plumb. “Because if the kids see good role models and good mentors, they’re going to grow up to be good role models and mentors and it’s going to go a long way.”
Michael Gervais, president of the Green and Yellow Group, took stock of Saturday’s Trunk or Treat.
“It’s a bunch of people who believe in smiles and unity, especially in the last couple of years,” he said. “With everything going on with COVID and everybody with their own understanding of what’s going on. It’s the opposite of division.
“Chris has been part of the community for some time and when they started Bikers Building Bridges they reached out. He’s all about unity and the importance of unity is community.”

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