A night of heroes and villains

Wednesday, November 2, 2016
Parents help the night's youngest competitors prepare for judging during a costume contest held in conjunction with this year's Super Safe Halloween carnival on Monday.

The little monsters, brave superheroes and princesses of every type gathered together for the Super Safe Halloween Carnival at Hacker Middle School on Monday evening.

The annual event, hosted by the city parks and recreation department, attracted kids of every age for a costume competition, games and, above all, candy.

There was a steady stream of costumed kids when the doors opened at 6 p.m. Celebrating its 39th anniversary, the carnival represents a safe alternative to door-to-door trick-or-treating, organizers said. Parks and recreation originally arranged the festival as a way for people to enjoy Halloween without walking on darkened streets and knocking on strangers' doors.

At just four months old, Marcus VanHorn was one of the youngest participants at this year's carnival, who attended with his mother, Rachel Heath-Van Horn.

Groups from across town volunteered their time to host games and hand out candy. Among them were Rotary Club volunteers, who ran multiple games as part of their dedication to service. The club raises money for vocational and academic schools along with supporting teachers classroom needs and concentrate their service in Mountain Home, Rimrock and Glenns Ferry.

Meanwhile, the Elks Lodge showed their support with volunteers at game booths and by supplying treat bags. The candy collecting bags were stuffed with drug awareness pamphlets and coupons from local businesses.

The annual carnival has also become a library tradition through their sponsorship of the Halloween night party. As kids made it through the line entering the carnival, they were able to pick out a free book from the city library.

The Star Wars universe came alive as children like Thomas Debore came dressed in their favorite heroes and villains.

"The books were donated by the Idaho Commission for Libraries," said city library director William Lamb.

There were 200 books available for kids coming through the door, and every book had found a new home by the end of the night.

The night was topped off with a costume contest geared for all ages. The panel consisted of volunteers from the library and parks and recreation, who based their scores on the most original costumes.

Marisol Hernandez opted to go with a "crazy cat lady" theme for her costume at the yearly carnival.

In the baby to 2-year-old category, the winner was Kapree Walsh, who came dressed as a little old lady, complete with silver hair and walking cane.

"I just had to spraying her hair over and over," said her mother, Breanne Christiansen, on what it took to turn her daughter's normally blonde hair to grey.

In the 3 to 4-year-old category, the winner was Zayven Hayter, who was dressed as a mummy. He was wrapped in yards of fabric stained to look as if he had risen from his tomb -- an effect that worked on the judges.

Hope Barboe, 2nd place winner in the 5th grade category appeared as a dead bride.

In the kindergarten category, the winner was the "pick of the bushel," so to speak. Saphira Foresberg's strawberry costume came complete with a stem hat and matching shoes, making her "berry" cute.

In the first grade category, Abby Mashburn stole the hearts of the judges when she won first place for her Queen of Hearts costume.

In the second grade category, James Dickinson won by coming dressed as the board game Battleship. He was part of a theme his mother, Beth Dickinson, had discovered on Pinterest. The entire set of costumes only took about six hours for her to create.

Beth Dickinson was the living version of Operation while daughter Olivia came as a Barrel of Monkeys, which netted the child first place in the third grade category.

Tristan Abrego sliced through the competition in his Edward Scissorhands' costume as he competed against other fourth graders.

Meanwhile, fifth grader Paul Guajardo sucked the life out of the competition in his vampire costume.

Scarlett O'Hara would've likely been proud of Ashley Raber in the sixth grade category, who won with her southern belle costume. Out of the seventh graders competing that evening, Mary Ramirez was an easy choice as a gypsy dancer.

Students representing the last school age group of eighth to 12th graders watched the pirate spirit come alive as Devon Abrego dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow.

The judging then turned to the adults as men and women turned to classic television and pop culture for their costumes.

Mary Ellen Hale attended in her Sunday best as the Gilligan's Island character Mrs. Howell. Meanwhile, Ben Kiel showed off his inner child by attending the event with a big baby head mask as part of his costume.

The event was capped off with the family theme competition with several creative and funny concepts.

The Bailey family won fifth place as a box of crayons with a spare red, blue, and orange while the Hale family came as the classic television characters from Gilligan's Island complete with a young captain and professor.

The Mendez family finished third with four of them dressed as a group of nerds being harassed by a baby bully. The second place winners were the Abrego family, all of whom appeared as Johnny Depp characters from various movies.

The first place winners were the Villasenor family, who came as the Mario Brothers video game characters. Parents Carmela and Danny Villasenor represented Mario and Luigi, with daughter Miya as Princess Peach and son Maddox as a baby mushroom.

Candy flowed freely throughout the night sending kids home with overflowing bags of sugar treats, a problem for some parents. In the event the kids came home with more candy than they can handle, Operation Gratitude is collecting candy to send to the troops and first responders. To donate, drop off candy from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. through Friday at St. Luke's Elmore Medical Center's business office at 895 North 6th East St.