Halloween in the Pontiac

November 3, 2020

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The Equity

EMILY HSUEH

PONTIAC Oct. 30-31, 2020

By the light of the blue moon, the people of the Pontiac donned their costumes and prepared their candy to celebrate Halloween. But it wasn’t just at night when the freaky festivities took place; there were many events taking place throughout the region on Oct. 30-31, with something for people of all ages to enjoy.

Charteris

Just a little ways outside of town, trick-or-treaters arrived at Lalonde’s Towing to get a treat bag and take part in a pumpkin carving contest and costume contest, which were both judged online through Facebook. The building was decked out in Halloween decorations, and even featured a skeleton lift driver in Lalonde’s Towing uniform.

“We just thought it’d be fun to do something since the kids haven’t gotten to do very much this year,” said owner Danny Lalonde, who was getting his face painted by his wife Holly and daughter Scarlet. “We’ve probably had as many kids already as we’ve ever had in our whole lifetime,” he added with a laugh.

There were 12 total winners across both competitions for kids’ costumes, adults’ costumes, 12 and under and 12 and up pumpkin carving. Voting closed on Nov. 1 and winner received cash prizes.

RELATED: Main Street trick-or-treat

Scarlet and Holly Lalonde apply face paint to Lalonde’s Towing owner Danny Lalonde.

David Down-Roy held his mighty sword up in the face of monsters with Sandra Down at Lalonde’s Towing’s Halloween event.

Lalonde’s Towing just outside of Shawville had some creatively carved jack-o-lanterns on display They could vote on their favourite pumpkin on Facebook for the carving competition.

Bryson

The Bryson RA was open late on Friday night as families brought over pre-carved jack-o-lanterns to entre in the Bryson Recreation Association’s pumpkin carving contest. There were three categories based on age: cutest for ages four and under, creative for ages five to eight, and detailed for ages nine and up. Guests would enter through one door, put their pumpkin on display and leave through a different way to ensure health and safety at the event.

“Normally every year we’ve had a very popular Halloween dance. We’ve had 40 – 60 kids at our Halloween dances but of course with COVID we can’t so we thought this would be the next best thing for the town,” said organizer Amanda Baird.

The contest when from 6:30 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. and saw Bryson Mayor Alain Gagnon and Director General Tracey Herault arrive at the end to judge the pumpkins.

The winners were Reid Kelly, Rylee Frost, Nadia Desrochers, Felicity Kelly, Kianna Jolicoeur and Kinley Huckabone.

Ella Robillard, 9, brought her carved pumpkin to the Bryson RA to enter the pumpkin carving contest held on Oct. 30.

Amanda Baird and Wanda Lance, members of the Bryson Recreation Association, took them time to organize a pumpkin carving contest at the Bryson RA.

Fort Coulonge

Nearly 200 cars packed the parking lot of the Draveurs Recreation Center in Fort Coulonge to catch a drive-in movie on Oct. 30. Colourful lights lit up the RA building as The Addams Family played on the big screen with French subtitles.

Sandra Armstrong, a councillor in Mansfield, said that they were inspired by the drive-in they held for Pontiac’s culture month that they decided to host another. According to Armstrong, the attendance blew past the organizers’ expectations.

“We decided to rent the movie The Addams Family and we’ll make, 82 bags of popcorn, [we thought] we have lots,” she said. “And it just turned out very good, we’re very happy. We posted it to our Facebook page and it just went crazy.

The Centre Récréatif des Draveurs in Fort Coulonge was packed with nearly 200 cars to watch The Addams Family movie for their drive-in theatre event on Oct. 30.

Campbell’s Bay

A drive-in was also hosted at the Campbell’s Bay RA, where Hotel Transylvania and Candyman was shown to over 100 cars on Oct. 31. The municipality was accepting candy donations earlier in the week to make treat bags for attendees.

This wasn’t the only way Campbell’s Bay celebrated Halloween. Brauwerk Hoffman brewery made some special changes to their menu and invited patrons in for dinner to “eat, drink and be scary.” Their dishes were served with decorative bugs and bats, and their cheesecake looked a little different as well. A costume contest was held later in the evening.

“We took our normal german-inspired food and put a Halloween twist on it,” said Portia Hoffman. “We didn’t want to do an event because of COVID … but we still wanted to make it kind of a positive holiday.”

Portia Hoffman, daughter of Brauwerk Hoffman’s owner, sits with the decorations that greeted guests on Halloween.

The cheesecake at Brauwerk Hoffman looked a little different this day, staring back at the guests who ordered it.

Over 100 Cars filled the Campbell’s Bay RA lot as they gathered to watch Hotel Transylvania and Candyman at the drive-in theatre on Oct. 31.

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