Our local Chamber of Commerce sponsors a downtown trick-or-treat every year the Thursday before Halloween. The main street is blocked off, and all the stores hand out candy to the local children from 4-6 pm. It’s a great way to get folks away from the mall and into the downtown area to see the local shops and restaurants.

We live in a fairly rural area of town, and this is really our best option for Douglas to trick or treat, so we go every year. Usually I walk with Douglas and his Dad wanders around taking pictures of trick-or-treaters for the Chamber website. This year though, I was staffing the table for a local education foundation (I’m on the board) so Doug had to walk around with Dad. Afterward, he mentioned something about maybe I could walk around with him next year, so I’m guessing Dad wasn’t as patient as I usually am 🙂

At the table for the Hudson Education Foundation, handily located next to the Chamber’s in front of Town Hall, we handed out candy for the kids and Purell wipes for the clean-up, which was much appreciated by the parents. I think we saw every child from Hudson MA and many many surrounding towns. They kept coming well after 6pm; it was only when the motorcycle cop drove down Main Street to open the road that it finally ended.

I was too busy to take a single photo, but here are a few from David.

In this one, I’m in the background. Douglas (Darth Vader) is asking me something. In the foreground, Marianne Vergano-Laughton, president of the Foundation, is handing out candy.

Here is Douglas as Darth Vader with another child from town. This picture was originally quite dark, so I did some editing in Picasa.

In this shot, Douglas seems to be doing something with the Force, hence the blurred hand.