Tonight 2nd Mile hosted our first ever Trunk or Treat, working in conjunction with the Boys and Girls club down in the park in our neighborhood.
Time out for those not well versed in the above vocab. A "Trunk or Treat" is Trick or Treating for lazy people or less cynically, a safe environment for the community to gather for Halloween (or Harvest Festival if you have qualms) fun. Basically, you gather as many cars as possible in a parking lot and decorate your trunks, have games, and give out candy and kids only have to walk 10 feet between each stop.
Anyways . . . I say tonight was cool for several reasons.
1. It was the culmination of developing relationships. We worked with the Boys and Girls club on this, something we'd like to do more of in the future as they are well connected in our neighborhood. Further, the elementary school where I have been volunteering 15+ hours a week helped us with promotion and at the park some kids recognized me from seeing me at their school, which is cool.
2. The neighborhood came out together. Our dream would have been to have full participation from all the houses surrounding the park and to have them all handing out candy. But, this time only about 20% of our target area participated, but that's still good. Our goal is not to come from the outside and "fix the neighborhood" or "help the people", our goal is to come here to be "with the neighborhood", to develop the skills and resources and leaders that are already here and empower them to transform OUR COMMUNITY. So partnering with our neighbors is always awesome.
3. It was fun. Kids played games. They got candy. What's not to like?
It was a good event. Great to see Brentwood, out in force (positive force) tonight!
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