This October, T’Challaween will be different. The entire event will be housed at Jefferson Community Center (JCC) on Beacon Hill on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Why is the South Seattle Emerald making this change? For bandwidth and financial reasons.
What began as a creative solution to staving off COVID isolation has grown into an event that is no longer sustainable to manage.
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While the public’s embrace of T’Challaween has been enormously gratifying — the hundreds who attend in costumes; the homeowners who generously decorate and hand out candy along the parade route; the devoted volunteers — the annual fall celebration has become too unwieldy to organize and oversee.
The permitting, safeguards, equipment rentals, fundraising, and communication made T’Challaween planning and execution … a beast for a nonprofit of our size.
If you were part of last year’s T’Challaween, you noticed the event was timed with dozens of Halloween-themed activities hosted at the community center. And when the weather turned less-than-ideal, we learned families appreciated having an indoor location where they could play.
So this year we’re working with Paul Davenport, coordinator at JCC, and his staff and reimagining the event. It’ll be called Jefferson Community Center’s T’Challaween Carnival, and we’re proud to support it.
It’ll still be a very community-focused event that invites participation of all kinds. A parade is currently not part of the plan, but if there’s interest, let me know and I can connect you to city officials who can give you information.
We’re excited to be a part of the inaugural T’Challaween Carnival. We hope to see you at JCC on Oct. 24.
Florangela Davila
Executive Director and Executive Editor
South Seattle Emerald
director@seattleemerald.org
