Annual Halloween party offers a variety of fun for Seekonk families
SEEKONK - The grounds of the Newman YMCA might not be haunted, but there were plenty of miniature ghouls and goblins running around last Friday night.
For the last several years, the Newman “Y” has hosted an annual Halloween party, inviting children and their parents for a night of spooky fun. This year, the event included a “soft play” room for kids who just wanted to dress up like their favorite superhero or princess and bounce around for awhile. It also included a “scary room” complete with strobe lights, a couple witches and a graveyard in addition to a small fire burning on a tennis court where partygoers gathered for some frightening ghost stories. In the gymnasium, Halloween movies were shown on a projection screen while kids danced around and enjoyed a giant obstacle course.
The biggest hit of the night, however, was the hay ride, which looped around the small section of woods located behind Newman. For most of the night, a couple dozen people waited anxiously in line to get on the ride while the occasional shrill scream or laugh could be heard a few yards away.
“It was one of the longest hay rides I’ve been on,” said Riverside resident Kim Province who took the trip with her niece and two young children.
Ms. Province added that even with all the young children in attendance, it wasn’t scary enough to send any kids home crying. “It was scary fun,” Ms. Province said.
Six-year-old Jessica Rogers, of Rehoboth, agreed.
“It was fun, but I wasn’t that scared,” she said.
With so much going on the night of the party, it might seem like planning took days or even weeks. But at about noontime on the day of the event, the Newman YMCA was as it is every other day of the year. Switching over from health center to haunted house was a group effort, said Newman YMCA executive director Jeanine Achin. With the party starting at 7 that night, Newman employees and other volunteers were able to get everything setup in about five or six hours. Pitching in to make this possible were students from both East Providence and Seekonk who went directly from school to start setting up.
While the event was free for Newman YMCA members, it was open to non-members at a fee of $5. Ms. Achin said any funds raised during the party will go towards Newman’s annual support campaign, which looks to help financial challenged families.
