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Children dig for candy in plastic pumpkins at the "Safe Halloween" event last Friday at Martin Park.
CommUniverCity teams with community
for safe Halloween for children
By: Bianca deCastro
Posted: 10/28/08
A collaboration of nonprofit organizations and neighborhood associations brought together thousands of local community residents for a Halloween extravaganza on Oct. 24.
The event, called "Safe Halloween," was organized by CommUniverCity and is a partnership between the local community, SJSU and the city of San Jose. It was held at Martin Park near Melbourne Boulevard and Jeanne Avenue.
Paul Pereira, a neighborhood team manager for the city of San Jose's Strong Neighborhoods Initiative, talked about a few of the resources that were being offered at the event.
"PG&E, Silicon Valley Energy Watch and Environmental Services with the city are a few of the companies or groups that are out here today promoting energy efficiency," Pereira said. "Most of the residents speak Spanish, so one of the main goals was getting this kind of information to folks in Spanish. Four out of five people in the community do not speak English."
Thousands of children participated in an array of free arts and crafts and carnival games complete with prizes. A local DJ played a mixture of popular hip-hop tunes and traditional Mexican music.
Volunteering at one of the children's games, Emily Sun, a junior child development major and event volunteer, described a bowling-based activity with a Halloween twist.
"We're using (medium-sized pumpkins) for the bowling ball and decorated soda bottle liters for the pins," Sun said. "The kids are really enjoying it. This has been a great experience."
The main attraction was not the free games, prizes or crafts. It was the 10 pop-up tents that were filled with free Halloween costumes.
"We had 1,400 costumes to give away and they are all gone," Pereira said.
The free costumes were collected by Sunday Friends, a nonprofit organization that empowers communities to break the cycle of poverty.
"This was the first year that we collaborated with CommUniverCity. I'm thrilled with the turnout," said Janis Baron, executive director of Sunday Friends. "We collected the costumes from 28 different donors and at various drives; we thought we'd have costumes left over and we were wondering what we'd do with them, but there's nothing, and that's great."
Pereira, who is also involved with CommUniverCity, said the organization estimated a turnout of 1,600 to1,800 people. He said he was excited about the actual turnout of 2,200 to 2,400 people.
"This is such an awesome community event and it's really great to see all the families," said Sonia Phillips, a senior health science major and event volunteer for AmeriCorps.
"I really enjoy being involved with community events," said Kristina Lindsay, a CommUniverCity volunteer. "I've worked with nonprofits before and I'm really impressed with this."
Councilman Sam Liccardo also made an appearance to show support for the efforts of the volunteers and thank them for their work.
"This is a great collaborative effort to bring our community together," the councilman said as he addressed the crowd.
"(We) are excited about the event," said Ruth Cueto, a council assistant for Liccardo. "It is a great opportunity for neighbors and people to get to know each other."
"(The event) brought people from all over the neighborhood together," said Terry Christensen, a political science professor and chair of the CommUniverCity project development committee. "It's the most people that we've ever had come out."
Imelda Rodriguez, president of the Olinder Neighborhood Association, talked about the difficulty in putting together such a large event.
"When you can organize this many people in one place, it's an outstanding job," she said. "It's not always easy to get people out of their homes."
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