Candy Cruise, the city’s drive-thru Halloween night treat collecting extravaganza, went way beyond the expectations of the event’s organizers.
Nearly 22,500 servings of candy were handed out to as many as 3,000 ghouls, goblins, princesses and pirates (and their parents) who lined up in their vehicles at 10 hub locations to take part in the community event - a pandemic-inspired alternative to going door-to-door for Halloween apples.
At PG Rock and Gravel, west of the city on Otway Road, candy was served to the kids by mask-wearing bandits on horseback from Ness Lake Bible Camp. Datoff Bros. Construction in the BCR site had carved jack o’lanterns and hay bales lining the route and skeleton drivers sitting behind the wheels of trucks, while Interior Warehousing decked its heavy equipment in cobwebs and used smoke machines for effect to provide an unforgettable experience.
It was a haunting Halloween spectacle like no other the city has ever seen before.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better result from our inaugural event,” said Dave Horton, Candy Cruise creator and event manager.
“It takes a community of people to pull something like this off. Huge numbers of volunteers, overwhelming numbers of patrons, but most of all it is the positive impact left on the community that excites me the most. Parents and families have been through so much lately, and to provide a bit of reprieve for families to get out and have fun together is something that this community is going to remember for years.”
The event involved 65 partner organizations, including 10 churches, and they provided more than $50,000 worth of candy and other treats. Some groups set up multiple booths at different sites.
“The event was carried by the incredible local organizations,” said Horton. “McDonalds sponsored two different candy vendors who didn’t have any money just because of the COVID impact. (Realtor) Aaron Switzer sponsored the Prince George Cougars, who are an accidental non-profit right now, and he paid for all of their candy. Some really beautiful partnerships came out of this as well.
“Nobody has ever served candy in this way and at the start of it our vendors were figuring out how to serve safely and how to serve two cars at the same time. They were problem-solving on the fly and keeping people safe.”
Horton said the lineup to get into the BCR Site hub for the Candy Cruise was close to a kilometre long and some drivers turned around and decided instead to go door-to-door in neighbourhoods with their kids rather than wait. The longest lineups ( about 45 minutes) were in the initial stages of the 4:30-9 p.m. event. A few lessons were learned in the inaugural Candy Cruise and Horton said he would definitely find alternate hub locations to avoid the congestion which slowed the procession of vehicles, especially at Canadian Tire and Halloween Alley/Best Buy.
“It wasn’t perfect, and I appreciate the frankness of people,” said Horton. “For the vast majority, I’m hearing over-the-top, very humbling positive comments.
“I have six kids and my family lasted three hours in the van. Trick or treating, you’ve got an hour-and-a-half tops. They lasted three hours and got way more candy and saw way more stuff,” he said.
“Families haven’t been able to go to Disneyland or theme parks or do their vacations and I was trying hard to bring that back, because it affects us, whether we think it does or not. Having something presented to you changes you. So we went big and the city took it over.”
The Cruise raised more than $5,500 in donations to help cover the costs. Any remaining funds will be shared equally among the Child Development Centre, Ness Lake Bible Camp and Big Brothers Big Sisters Northern BC. The leftover candy will be distributed by the St. Vincent de Paul Society.
Horton says he is prepared to do the Cruise again next Halloween, if that’s what the city wants.
“I will continue to look for ways to serve the community to make it a better place and if this is desired for next year then I’m interested in doing it again,” Horton said. “With the pandemic, this is the only large event that’s happened in northern BC in the last six months. We’ve tried Rooftop Rock (which had to be cancelled due to crowd size restrictions). This was an event that served like 3,000 people, which is wild.
“Only Prince George could do this. The houses should be worth more in Prince George because they contain incredible human beings. We’re in a pandemic and we just had a Halloween that was even better than going door-to-door.”
