In keeping with the motto of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula “A Safe Place for Kids,” a decade ago the Kenai Club held the first “Trunk or Treat.” The successful event has grown every year, regardless of the weather drawing sponsors and haunted campers to the frontage road in front of the Kenai Club house where thousands of costumed trick or treaters can load up on sweets then head into the club house gym and enjoy a bunch of fun games. “It was one of our best Trunk or Treats ever! I love seeing all the costumes and we had such great sponsors again this year and they make this a total community event,” said Kim Dent, unit director of the Kenai Club. “We started the event ten years ago to include the parents in the fun rather than just driving the kids around from house to house and worrying about dogs in the yard, traffic on the streets. So we decided to have trunks out front with the candy so the parents can park and join in the socialization and fun of being with their kids. It started with four trunks and this year we had more than 14 trunks and over 1,000 kids we estimate but have no official counting method,” said volunteer Shauna Thornton.

The goal of reducing kids going door to door in the community hasn’t really materialized says Dent, “Kids are still trick or treating and a lot of them go from here out into the neighborhood to double their booty,” she laughed. Dent expressed her appreciation to everyone who turned out for the event and all the volunteers who helped decorate and make the event such a community success. She also wanted everyone to mark Saturday, November 15th on their calendar and be sure to get their tickets for the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Kenai Peninsula annual auction and gala, “It’s our 27th Auction and our major fund raiser of the year we invite everyone to join us as we ‘Open the Door to Great Futures” our theme for this year’s event. It’ll be held at the Old Carr’s Mall again this year and we encourage everyone to get their tickets as soon as possible because this is a sellout event, so call us here in Kenai at 283-2682 for tickets or more information,” said Dent.