For the third year Papanui Rotary partnered with Ray White Real Estate Papanui to bring some free, safe family fun for local children at St. James Park.

Article by PDG Liz Courtney, Assistant Rotary Regional Public Image Coordinator

It was unexpectedly cold and rainy and knowing that we had had to work within the COVID Level 2 guidelines this year we had made it a contactless and very simple event. We were somewhat surprised to have about 150 people attend as the wind blew and the rain fell.

We advertised in the News Advertiser and on social media sites and included a QR code from where children could download a scavenger hunt sheet asking questions about the 10 large Halloween icon stations we had in the park.

The children once again came all “dressed to kill” in great Halloween outfits from sharks to spiderman, and witches to ghouls. When the sheets were completed, they handed them in and were able to pick up a bag of sweets from the sack as their reward.

As we were putting up the Halloween icons several parents came up to us to say how grateful they were that we were still holding this event as there was nothing for small children to do in the current COVID environment and they enjoyed dressing up for Halloween. Comments like this make holding events worthwhile and our partnerships with other organisations are valuable tools to Rotary being visible in our communities even with restrictions. It made us think differently about how we can do things and work together.

Simon Forsyth, a professional photographer, and member of Papanui Rotary took some great photos of the children and once again we thank Ray White Real Estate for partnering with us. Hopefully next year we can take it back to our large event where over 400+ attend and the weather is kind.