ESTEVAN — The Southern Plains Co-op had local families excited and spooked last Friday with its annual Trail of Terror at Woodlawn Regional Park.
The free community event attracted roughly 3,500 participants, who enjoyed a range of Halloween thrills from less scary trails to a high-intensity haunted adventure, making it the favourite highlight of the fall season for many.
The event kicked off at 4 p.m. with a sensory-friendly version in partnership with Limitless, ensuring that all members of the community could take part.
"We make an effort to ensure that it is inclusive of all different types of people," said Brooke Spagrud, Southern Plains Co-op's marketing and community relations manager. "It's called the Trail of Terror, but really, it's only scary for the last two hours," she added, describing the evening's three-tiered format that catered to all ages.
As dusk fell, more families arrived, eager to experience a mild scare before the "scare and fright" trail opened at 7 p.m., where Spagrud herself joined the team of scarers, noting the overwhelmingly positive feedback from participants. A carefully crafted trail and Halloween-themed stations greeted participants along the way, including new additions to keep things fresh.
"We try to add on and do new things every year, and we try to reuse the old decorations we've had as much as possible, but also try to maybe set them up differently so that everything feels new and fresh," Spagrud said. "We added the two tents this year, and we built a lot of displays out of pallets this year, too."
The event's success relied heavily on the dedication of the co-op's staff, family members and friends, and local partners, who kept things running smoothly. Spagrud estimated they had about 50-60 volunteers ensuring everything was ready for guests in time and the event was running smoothly throughout the evening.
The Estevan Fire Rescue Service manned the parking area, the Estevan Great North U18 AAA Bears helped with games for the kids and several local businesses provided necessary supplies, while the co-op family fed and spooked the crowd, doing the planning, setup and execution of the Trail of Terror.
Despite some minor challenges, the event concluded without any significant incidents, wrapping up on schedule by 8:30 p.m.
Reflecting on the effort and community support involved, Spagrud expressed gratitude for everyone's role in making the event memorable.
"I'm super happy about how the event went. It never ceases to amaze me how our team comes together to pull off an event like this. We do most of this all in one day … It's a very busy day. We have great people and great teams," Spagrud said.
"Thank all of our staff and their friends and family who help and put this event on with us. Thanks to the community for coming out and being patient with the longer lineups, although I do feel like the lineups were moving fairly smoothly. And also, thank you to other supporting businesses and organizations that help us.
"You can't do something like this without a great group of people and a lot of hard work."
