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Halloween season starts Saturday
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It’s official: Great Bend has extended Halloween from a single night to two weekends of costuming and candy.
The Kiwanis Club’s annual sidewalk parade is set for 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, on Main Street. Children are invited to wear costumes and go trick or treating on both sides of the street, finishing their trek in Jack Kilby Square.
Joe Boley, secretary for the Great Bend Noon Kiwanis, said everyone should stick around, because once everyone has finished there will be prizes awarded for the best costumes in several age categories. Prizes are awarded every year, but often the children who complete the circuit first don’t stick around until the end, Boley noted. This year, the Kiwanis Club has added entertainment to keep everyone occupied in the interim. Award-winning artist Randy Sauer will present a children’s show.
Members of the Kiwanis Aktion Club at Sunflower Diversified Services help keep an eye on the traffic and make sure children are safe as they cross intersections downtown. Sunflower has also provided fliers listing all of the Oct. 25 Halloween activities.
Those include free pictures of children in their Halloween costumes. These can be taken from 2 to 6 p.m. at Walgreens.

Zoo Boo
The Great Bend-Brit Spaugh Zoo gets into the act from 6 to 8 p.m. with the annual Zoo Boo. This huge Halloween experience is suitable for all ages, Zoo Director Scott Gregory said. Great Bend High School students in the Art Club, sponsored by GBHS art instructor Richard Mehringer, are creating a “scary area” for the braver children to walk through. Those who are easily frightened don’t have to walk through it to enjoy Zoo Boo.
Children are invited to wear their costumes as they walk through the zoo and collect more candy. This year there will be 35 sponsor booths, which is a record number.
“Last year we had 4,000 kids at Zoo Boo,” Gregory said. “The line is huge.” The staff serves hot chocolate, and this year there will be something new: Papa Murphy’s will have a truck set up outside the zoo and will sell pizza by the slice. Proceeds will go to the Great Bend Zoo Society.

Other events
Check the Great Bend Tribune’s “Breakfast Briefing” on page 2A for more Halloween events this week. Area haunted houses will be open as early as Thursday. These include the annual Judgement House at First Church of the Nazarene and the Barton County Sheriff Reserves Haunted House at Expo III. Judgement House is a walk-through drama; this year’s show is “Abducted.” The theme for the Sheriff’s Reserves this year is “Swamp Terrors.”
Hoisington’s “Haunted Heights” opened this past weekend and will be open again.
Several churches are also planning fall festivals this coming Saturday.