Ryan Ostry
Bugle Reporter
@RyanOstry_BR18
rostry@buglenewspapers.com
On Halloween Eve, the White Oak Library in Romeoville hosted its annual Halloween Party get together for family and friends.
“This party is one of the most popular parties we have throughout the entire year,” said Jessica Smith, Children’s Services Supervisor. “We spent quite amount of time on the planning and this year we were doing everything all brand new.”
Some of the new and improved changes were creating a registration online to get better head counts for crafts and prizes, all new games so nothing was repeated from the previous year, new crafts and a haunted house maze room.
A couple of perks for local attendee Esmeralda Martinez and her daughter, was the fact it was indoors and they had the chance to show off their Halloween spirit.
“It’s inside, it’s not cold and the kids get to wear their costumes, which is really cool,” Martinez said. “My daughter is having a lot of fun, I am too actually and we both really enjoyed the memory game.”
Throughout the hour-long event, multiple different activates and games were dispersed around the library.
Some of the activities and games included were a Haunted House maze, Fling the Spider onto the Web, Bobbing For Apples, Find the Vampire Fang, Fly the Bat into the Cave, Toss the Ball into the Ghost, Toss the Ring Around the Skeleton, Ghost Bowling, Sensory Buckets Werewolf Teeth, Squishy Eyeballs and Hands, Pumpkin Tic-Tac-Toe, Jenga and many more.
(Photo by Ryan Ostry)
Local resident Lindsay Morgan and her son came to the event as matching pumpkins, and the ebullient mom said that she appreciated the library throwing this get together, as this once a year holiday is something her and her son really love together.
“Halloween is special to us because it’s just so much fun and so neat to dress up and the excitement of going out to get candy and see everybody in costumes is really cool as well,” Morgan said.
A new feature involving the haunted house was kids getting the chance to receive a glow in the dark tattoo and glow stick for their memorabilia.
Smith went on to add that she wanted this year to be different for the kids and families, and that she wanted her and her staff to have a very successful Halloween get together.
“I wanted to motivate everyone to come up with new things this year,” Smith said. “We don’t want to be known for doing the same thing every year, we’ve been increasing our program while trying to get the community excited about everything so it’s definitely something everyone’s excited to see going forward.”
With 160 people registered for the event, according to Smith, she totaled more than 300 attendees in total showing up.
“It’s something these kids get encouraged about every year and we like that there’s something here for everyone which makes it even better for kids and their families to enjoy,” Smith said.