By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com
Mansfield Street in Bucyrus was flooded with witches, pirates, superheroes, and things that go bump in the night as the Bucyrus Fire Department held the 12th annual Halloween Spooktacular.
Lasting from 5 until 8 p.m., members of the Bucyrus Fire Department, Police Department, Neighborhood Watch groups, as well as a host of other organizations banded together to pass out goodies to area children dressed in costume.
Firefighter Casey Gillen helped organize the event explained why they chose to move the Spooktacular back to a weekday.
“This is the day that we normally have it,” Gillen said. “Last year we wanted to hold it on the weekend to see how that turn out worked out, and it was about half and half, so we decided to just to stay with the weekday and try to stay with the eve of Halloween.”
Gillen said that with the help of the community the Spooktacular was able to happen.
“We had all the bicycles were donated by different organizations this year. We had a lot the candy that was packed in the boxes as well. Everybody helped out, we had hot dogs were donated. The community just banded together and really helped us out. It was nice to see. That was my goal for this.”
Alexis Adams attended the Spooktacular dressed as a pirate with her mom.
“I thought a parrot would be funny at my school because I have a Halloween dance so I thought it would be funny and cool to be a pirate this year,” Alexis said.
Joining Alexis and her mother was Kelsey Teets, who dressed as a prisoner as was her father.
“I worked at the OSR so I thought it would be neat to be a prisoner since they kept prisoners there,” Teets said.
Micah Greene dressed as Rocky Raccoon from Guardians of the Galaxy and his brother Trent dressed as a Clone Trooper from Star Wars. Their friend Josh Cory dressed as the Flash. All three boys attended the event with their mothers.
Josh explained why he chose to don the Flash costume.
“I like running and I am also in track and soccer, so I choose the Flash” Cory said.
Dressed as a fireman, Daniel Fleming attended the event with his mom. Daniel, who has been to the Spooktacular before, explained what his favorite part of the event is.
“I like getting the cookie and the hotdog,” Fleming said.
Other organizations that helped passing goodies out were members of ODOT, The Humane Society Serving Crawford County, the Bucyrus Guardian Angels, WQEL, People’s Bank, and the Women of the Moose.
PHOTO GALLERY: 2014 Spooktacular