Costumes, Candy, Community: Despite Wind and Rain, Hundreds Gathered for T'Challaween

Children's laughter echoed as they discussed the different candies they collected. People dressed in a range of costumes, from superheroes to fairy-tale characters, made their way through Beacon Hill. All this and more could be found at this year's T'Challaween.

The classic Seattle weather that alternated between sun and rain did little to stop the hundreds of people who participated in this year's event, hosted by the South Seattle Emerald in partnership with Beacon Arts.

T'Challaween began in 2020 as a way to bring the community together during the COVID-19 pandemic, to foster joy and celebrate the heroes in people's lives during a time filled with isolation, uncertainty, and injustice.

For many neighbors, like Doug Yun and Megan Mentink, T'Challaween is their favorite Beacon Hill event, one they look forward to every year. Mentink became emotional when recalling the first time they participated. She remembers it being a difficult year, but when the event took place, people sat on their porches and passed out candy to kids.

"Everyone was just so excited," Mentik said. "It was like the most smiles we have probably seen in a pretty long time."

Yun and Mentink have participated in T'Challaween every year since it first began and prior to becoming parents.

"Now that we have a 4-year-old and a 7-month-old, it's his event as well," she added. "[The older sibling] woke up this morning and asked, 'Is the parade today?' and he was out here passing candy for the first two hours, even in the rain."

This year, hundreds of people walked from South College Street to the Jefferson Community Center. There were stops along the way at stations that featured candy, face painting, and photo booths. At the end of the route, Seattle Parks & Recreation hosted a Halloween Carnival complete with games such as ring toss and Gone Fishing.

Throughout Beacon Hill, houses were adorned with spooky Halloween decorations. A line of trick-or-treaters gathered outside houses as the wind blew orange and yellow leaves off trees.

The sounds of classic Halloween music emanated from Eva Foster's house. The garage doors were decorated with chalk messages and drawings from people who came by. On the wall were people's initials, images of pumpkins and ghosts, and positive messages, mostly related to the Seattle Mariners.

When she and her husband first participated in T'Challaween, they created a zip line with a skeleton to safely deliver candy to people during the pandemic. Now, six years later, they kept the idea but now use a ghost to hand out candy.

In addition to the annual costume parade and trick-or-treating, this year the Emerald introduced the South End Gem Awards to highlight local heroes who have become pillars in the community for uplifting the South End.

This year's heroes were Leona Moore-Rodriguez and Jose Luis Rodriguez, business owners of The Station coffee shops; Maria Batayola, a community advocate known as the "unofficial mayor of Beacon Hill"; and Michael Bethea, a basketball coach at Rainier Beach High School who has mentored hundreds of students.