ESTEVAN — An interactive three-hour Halloween event at the Souris Valley Museum attracted close to 400 people on Saturday.
"I think it went really well because we have our visiting partners," said museum director/curator Melanie Memory. "They all were doing activities at their stations, so that kept everybody active and going through the stations."
Dressed-up families showed up at the Spooky Museum to enjoy activities offered by all agencies involved, including the Estevan Early Years Family Resource Centre, Settlement Workers in Schools, the Estevan Area Literacy Group, the Estevan Public Library and the museum itself. Guests were invited to have fun with the body stencils, take pictures at the themed photo booth, enjoy some cotton candy and try out activities and crafts organized by participating organizations.
"There were different things to do for all ages, and that kept people entertained," Memory said.
For the first time this year, the museum also set up the Spooky Schoolhouse.
"We had talked about it last year, but we just didn't know if it would work. And then this year, we did a little research on it and decided we would do it," Memory said.
She noted that they put up new blinds this year to better preserve the authentic schoolhouse, which also helped with turning it into a Halloween space.
"We put up some blue lights, and we made some ghosts and witches and we put up the spider webs and skeletons. We thought we would do that but not make it too scary for younger kids. It was just an extra thing that people could go through and see the schoolhouse too."
Memory said their partnership with other organizations has been working really well, allowing them to offer a good variety of fun things to do like crafts, scavenger hunts and other games.
"We always look to each other. We've partnered with all of them in the past, either way, and it's worked out well. I think we have those relationships, and it's nice to work together with them. We can help each other out," Memory said.
She noted that the organizations run their stations and also bring volunteers to help with the event, which makes it even better.
"We had lots of volunteers from SWIS, Aimee [Haralson, SWIS co-ordinator] brought quite a few students and they helped us out. Plus, I had my family volunteering and a couple of my board members, and then, of course, myself and Briana [Briana Robinson, education and outreach co-ordinator]. We couldn't do it without them," Memory said.
The variety of costumes people chose to wear to the event was also impressive, Memory said.
"So many different ones, and a lot of cute ones. It's just fun watching the kids when they come in, and lots of adults dressed up this year too. It seemed like there was way more adults participating. There was a Fred and a Wilma [Flintstone] couple, that one was really cute, a few of the blow-up costumes. There's a lot of variety," Memory said. "And there were a lot of cats and policemen and firemen, things like that. And then, of course, your Marvels. And Mario was popular this year."
