Center's Halloween stroll well attended

Mission at Castle Rock had another successful Halloween trick-or-treating event.

"It was incredible," Castle Rock activities coordinator Heidi Schuh said. "We probably had at least 500 kids,"

She said residents passed out donated candy to all of the kids who decided to trick or treat last Monday night.

This event is always one of the residents' favorites.

"We had more than half of our residents handing out candy this year," Schuh said.

Something new this year, that was a huge hit, was the spook walk.

Schuh said employee Heather Hufford asked if she could decorate the hallway that connects The Villa to Mission at Castle Rock.

"She volunteered 40 hours of her own time," Schuh said. "It was awesome."

Schuh didn't even know where to start when describing the scene. At least 30 to 40 bags of spider webs were used along with a lot of Hufford's own decorations.

A Grimm reaper was donated to the center to use and Hufford set up a curtain with bloody handprints on them. One of the care partners sat near the entrance and did a witch's cackle that could even scare adults.

With strobe lights, numerous decorations, spooky music and sound activated items along the hallway some kids screamed, but that didn't stop them from continuing down the spooky hallway in pursuit of candy.

Schuh said she never imaged the hallway could be transformed into something that amazing in such a short time.

Schuh felt the spooky hallway only added to the success of the event.

"It couldn't have gone any smoother for us," Schuh said "I wouldn't change a thing. I had nothing but good comments from residents."

Even a couple of the Castle Rock residents wanted to go down the spooky hallway. Schuh said they were amazed at how creepy it was and they did get quite a scare.

"I had fun," Schuh said. "Every care partner had a great time."

She said an event like this wouldn't have been easy to pull off if it weren't for the volunteers, community donations and employees.

It took all of them working together to make the night special for the trick or treaters and for the Castle Rock residents.