It seems that Halloween has been more tricks than treats in the past two years as an October snowstorm froze up plans in 2011 and Hurricane Sandy postponed the holiday by one week in East Haven this year.
However, those weren’t the only tricks Mother Nature had up her sleeve with Storm Athena set to deliver snow on the rescheduled Halloween. Despite Mayor Joseph Maturo declaring Halloween would not be cancelled due to snow, some East Haven residents had other plans.
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One East Haven woman took it upon herself to treat her neighborhood. When Trisha Norwood saw the snowy forecast for Nov. 7, she didn’t want the kids to be disappointed again after last year, according to her cousin Jean Warner, planning a neighborhood trick-or-treat for Nov. 4.
Norwood approached her neighbors in the Glenmoor Drive area and distributed flyers to others on Warwick Manor asking them to turn on their lights so the children could go trick-or-treating.
"Our neighborhood is awesome every Halloween and we usually get about 300 kids," said Norwood.
The reason Halloween was postponed in the first place was not lost on Norwood. She requested that anyone joining in on the Halloween fun also bring along non-perishable food items to donate to Hurricane Sandy victims.
Norwood not only gave more than 150 East Haven children the chance to trick or treat, but they also collected a "huge box" of non-perishable food items along with $76 in cash to be donated to hurricane relief directly to a Staten Island neighborhood. Norwood used the cash to purchase diapers, wipes and other food items.
"We had a lot of kids out there and it made me so happy that the kids didn't have to be disappointed," said Norwood. "And incorporating the donations was great and a nice learning experience for my daughter, as well.
And Athena certainly did make trick-or-treating on Nov. 7 impossible, helping grow the grassroots effort of a group of parents – many of whom connected via East Haven Patch's Facebook page — to hold the town's Halloween celebration on Nov. 10.
East Haven Patch reader Chrissy Bagnoli created a special Facebook event page to help spread the word to as many families throughout town as possible with nearly 500 who replied 'yes,' plus another 78 with a 'maybe' reply.
