Normally in our household we have not been known to celebrate Halloween. Being it is a celebration of the dead and most decor is quite ghastly in nature, it really puts a damper on fun and celebration. It also usually gives the flowergals nightmares just looking around the neighborhood at the tombstones, bodies hanging from trees and arms reaching from "beneath the ground". However, this year I am part of a bigger picture with a location in a mall, so therefore, I succumbed to the pressure and If You Give a Kid a Party celebrated with trick or treating and a FALLoween Festivity.
All this came about because Crestwood Court ARTSPACE, with the lead from Bread and Honey, decided to celebrate a few days before with a Zombie Mall Walk. That came about from a news report by Fox 2 stating that Crestwood Court was now a "zombie mall". Therefore the organizers thought a couple times about the comments and decided to "show them". Quite a bit of media coverage came from the event and also brought out the droves of small trick or treaters from 4:00 to a bit after 6:30 and then the zombies made their descent on the mall around 6:00 until midnight. Both events brought in around 100 people each. Reports of past Trick or Treating events seemed to only bring in less then 30 people, so both Bread and Honey and If You Give a Kid a Party, who took up organizing the T or T event, were very pleased with the turn outs.
Most of us felt the size of crowds we experienced were due to the fact we offered another safe event for people to attend that was NOT ON HALLOWEEN. So we will see how next year's event will be attended.
Channel 2 decided they wanted to investigate the Zombie event, so zombies descended upon the Fox 2 news station a few days before. The word got out and the zombies heard the call. One reason the event was so well attended. The Crestwood/Kirkwood times also covered the event with a story in the paper as well as pictures.
Show Me St. Louis showed up early the day of the event and pictures were taken as well as interviews. Most shops were open and from that it helped get the mall another shot at an interview in the near future. Crestwood is not as dead as was first reported. The Show Me St. Louis segment is to show within the next few weeks. We will see if Allan (my husband) will be as much of a draw to the interviewer as he was on Fox 2 with Tim Ezell.
So far our first event, we had a nice turn out. Not as many people paid to do Falloween Crafts, but there is always next time. I got to talk to a few people regarding the business, and several have birthdays before the end of the year. So here is to praying some business starts popping in for a chance to help us make a memory (and some money).
This week we are getting ready for the Artstravaganza that will be happening at Crestwood Court ARTSPACE this weekend ... we are teaming up to have our Grand Opening the same time. Seems like a good idea since the mall will be a buzz with people looking for interesting things to buy.
So until next week, I think I will go play like a kid and plan more crafting ideas for the event. If you want to come check us out ... come Friday from 5-7, Saturday 11-7 or Sunday 1-4 ... enjoy some cake, punch and a fall craft or two. It's gonna be another great memory made!
Janet
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