Halloween returned in full-swing in the city of Santa Clarita as more than 400 families and children dressed up in various costumes to attend the city’s Halloween carnival.
The city of Santa Clarita hosted its 20th annual Halloween carnival on Friday at the Newhall Community Center. City staff featured a children’s costume contest, a pumpkin decorating station, trick-or-treating, carnival games and more entertainment.
“We’ve had the carnival since 1999,” said Cynthia Muir, community services supervisor for the city. “The purpose is to provide an opportunity for families to come and enjoy a nice evening with their family.”
It takes a lot of work and a number of city staff to organize the carnival, she added. They started planning and crafting their activities throughout the week.
“I must say that the last two weeks we’ve been getting the carnival prizes ready, getting the arts and crafts ready, and then organizing our haunted house,” Muir said. “Our teens participated in the haunted house.”
The city of Santa Clarita has a teens experience program that gives teenagers an opportunity to volunteer their time and help with city-led after-school programs or scaring people for the carnival, according to Muir.
“They learn production as part of the teen experience,” Muir said. “Teenagers learn how to produce the haunted house from the makeup to the costumes and designing the haunted house.”
Cherish Williams, 17, is a Golden Valley High School student who volunteers with the city as part of the teen experience program. She said they scared about 300 to 400 people throughout the night.
“My favorite thing about tonight is the whole project and being able to scare people,” Williams said.
“Especially since it’s my last year doing this, I think it’s definitely special because even after COVID, and everything, we were able to work together and put this on.”
She said last Halloween they were unable to produce their annual haunted house, but she’s glad that to be back and participate in events like the city’s Halloween carnival.
“I can’t think of anything else, except I hope people come next year,” Williams said.
Edgar Molinero, of Newhall, brought his four girls and wife to enjoy the carnival. He said they come every year because his girls love to participate and enjoy the community programs.
“I think it’s important because it’s something nice and healthy for the community,” Molinero said.
Muir said they were excited to organize the event for families because this also allows the city to share resources and inform attendees about the community center officers.
“We want our families in the community to participate in the programs that we offer,” Muir said. “We do educational classes, recreational classes, we have senior programming, after-school programming, and we want our community to come to the center and get that experience.”
