Emmily McKinzie
A&E Editor
Leaves are falling and the smell of pumpkin spice is in the air. Halloween is coming. Halloween is usually a time when kids dress up in fun costumes and go around and get candy from house to house.
However, with the recent pandemic Halloween may be different this year. Oregon Health Authority recommends that this year people do not participate in Trick or Treating along with any other Halloween event that may be going on. Although they are not able to stop people from participating in Trick or Treating, they require you wear a mask and not just one that you would get with your costume.
Therefore, because of the new recommendations, this also applies to the events put on by Sandy High School’s Key Club. The Key Club puts on their annual Boo Bash every year, but this year things have been postponed.
“We are hopefully going to hold some activity for kids this spring if we can, but for now we are planning to hold some virtual meetings during this year where we can do activities that benefit the community,” Key Club President Rebekah Harrell said.
Another fun Halloween activity that has some slight changes this year would be Pumpkin Patches. Leipolds, the well-known pumpkin patch in our area, is still open, but mandating social distancing along with masks. There are quite a few changes they have made in order to make sure their customers practice safe social distancing and sanitization. They are also allowing up to 250 people in the farm at once.
“We are asking that all visitors wear masks and practice social distancing. We are also selling tickets online to help even out the number of visitors. Visitors purchase tickets for a two hour visit time slot. We’ve added more hand washing stations as well as have implemented more sanitation for seating areas and for the wheelbarrows for customer use,” Michelle Liepold Krummenacker said.
The farm is still operating most of the same activities with proper social distancing guidelines. Activities such as the Dark Maze have been taken out due to health and safety precautions, but all other activities have remained the same and just as fun.
“We still have the corn maze, apple slingshots, hay rides (with social distancing), the animal viewing area (we’ve added turkeys this year), pumpkin patch, candy shack, the restaurant, produce stand and numerous photo opportunities,” Liepold Krummenacker said.
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