an editorial by Kirby S. Laney,
originally posted 26 October 2015
Sign-ups have started for Trick-or-Treat In Fremont 2018 – with businesses eagerly volunteering to participate. Check the official list of locations involved this year at https://fremocentrist.com/ToT.php
This editorial is being reposted here to explain about the origins of the event, and why it remains an annual favorite… for me, at least!!
For over 15 years I’ve led the effort of Fremont businesses to distribute treats to kids in costume on Halloween Day. This year, on October 31st, 2015, from 3p – 6p, dozens upon dozens of shop keepers, restauranteurs, and service providers, plus a few library staff, will hand-out goodies to children (accompanied by an adult and in costume.)
Trick-or-Treat In Fremont is a true community effort, with over 100 businesses voluntarily giving away treats, along with engaging in whatever costume, decoration and celebratory attitude they, and their employees, feels the day deserves. Theo Chocolate, which covers printing costs, earns big kudos – oh, and they hand out samples too! I owe Portage Bay Goods, the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, and History House, special recognition for being steady supporters and facilitators over more than decade of ToTs. And then there is Charlotte Buchanan, of GlamOrama, who hatched the original idea twenty years ago – and let me steal it when she moved on to create more grand events of outrageousness.
Set In Motion
When I started with Trick-or-Treat, in 1997, I had my own retail business here. After I’d moved full-time into writing, ToT continued to be easy to organize (due entirely to the enthusiastic willingness of Fremont businesses to play along) so I kept at it.
For those looking for a list of those participating businesses for 2015, visit the official ToT website, and also check out the Google map of their locations.
For those interested in a glimpse inside this annual distribution of yumminess, here I’m sharing my own Top Five Favorites of Fremont’s Trick-or-Treat:
1. Catching Up!
Every year, during sign-ups, by e-mail, phone calls and face-to-face conversations, I get to chat with many of my favorite Fremont businesses, exchanging gossip, concerns and updates. I get to see renovations (Marketime Foods,) meet new managers (Caffé Ladro, Book Larder, Sole Perfection, etc.,) and find out the latest about developing businesses (the Open Mic at Stone Way Café is doing great, Brown Paper Tickets is closing their office above LTD and consolidating in their offices on Nickerson, Petapoluza is building a calendar of pet-centric events, etc.)
Some news isn’t good. Due to development, several businesses are being (in some cases, temporarily) displaced. Yet, Bikram Yoga Studio, Café Turko, and Milstead & Co will stay open through Trick-or-Treat. Some news is personal in nature, as I catch up on births and deaths, marriages and divorces, from neighbors that feel more like friends after these annual conversations.
And some news can be inspiring! Anytime Fitness and the Marko Tubic Edward Jones office aren’t scheduled to be open on Saturday – but both agreed to stick around and distribute treats nonetheless.
One reason I get to chat with so many busy business people is because, so often, the conversation about participation, particularly with veterans, goes:
“Trick-or-Treat?”
“Yes!”
2. Meeting New Fremonsters
While I mourn the businesses that closed since the last ToT, every year I also get to welcome new arrivals, introducing them to this annual event and, sometimes even signing them up before the business has fully opened. Our new State Farm office, and agents Jeffrey Kalvelage and Katie Keating, will participate – although they have yet to set a date for their Grand Opening. Aesop, Warby Parker, Liten, Fremart, Suga, and Eve also jumped in enthusiastically, not always quite understanding what ToT will look like, but glad to play with their new neighbors.
3. Seeing The Kids, Of Course
I like seeing the costumed kiddies, and their eager parents, every year. The cuteness factor is off-the-charts for three-hours in Fremont, as is the inspiration from costumes so inventive, so creative, or simply so bewildering. In addition, this neighborhood is not known for family-friendly opportunities, and it is heart-warming to see our sidewalks filled with Fremont’s future generation.
4. Made Easy
Organizing over 100 participants, and convincing harried parents to bring their cherubs to the Center of the Universe, may not sound easy… but it really is. Every year I do encounter a few businesses that resist joining, or they wait to join until the eve of Hallow’s Eve, but most jump at the opportunity heartily.
As for the kids, most parents do prefer to take their precious babies out, in daylight, to trick-or-treat established, brick-and-mortar stores. And their children really do want free candy.
Trick-or-Treat In Fremont is a win-win-win-win-win.
5. Displaced Fulfillment
I live in a non-residential/industrial buffer area of Fremont, where no parent in their right mind should ever send their child to trick-or-treat. I joined the first Trick-or-Treat In Fremont simply to have a chance to participate in Halloween, and pay forward a decade of candy collection as a child, while ostensibly ‘working’.
Trick-or-Treat In Fremont remains a highlight on the Fremont calendar for me. I’m given a chance to not only participate in Halloween, but bring over 100 businesses together to share in giving and spreading joy.
I hope you will come down and take part, bring your children or someone else’s, or just spend the hours at one of our restaurants or in one of our coffee shops (Fremont Coffee, The Ballroom, the Fremont Branch of the Seattle Public Library, Caffe Vita and Uneeda Burger all have great places to sit and watch the parade of ghosts and goblins go by,) from 3p – 6p on Saturday, October 31st.
Look for the bright orange signs in the windows and on the doors of participating businesses! See the list of registered participating businesses at the official Trick-or-Treat In Fremont website. If you want to meet me, and share your own opinions of ToT, Fremocentrist.com will distribute treats this year from the lobby of the Saturn building.
Oh, and after Trick-or-Treat In Fremont ends, other, more adult fun is just beginning. At the Fremont Troll, at 7p, the 25th Annual Trolloween will present the production, ‘Don Juan Goes To Hell,’ to be followed by a neighborhood haunt, leading to the Doric Lodge #92 and the Fremont Arts Council fundraiser Troll-A-Go-Go costume/dance party.
Whatever you do decide to do this Saturday, though, Have a Very Spooky Halloween!
Related Articles
- Trick-or-Treat: Give Me A Reason!
- by Kirby Lindsay, October 25, 2013
- Trick-or-Treat In Fremont, Plus…!
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- Simply Trick-or-Treat
- by John Nordstrand, October 25, 2010
©2018 Kirby Lindsay. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.