Pirate for Trunk or Treat 2023

Continuing in the great tradition of Laura’s Trunk or Treat ideas (see past ideas here), Laura dressed as a pirate complete with a pirate ship this year for our church’s fall festival. It was a great success!

But this was no ordinary pirate or pirate ship. As the sign near the bottom of the ship said, “Treasure ahoy, mates!” Whenever a Trunk or Treater walked up (which was almost constantly since we had well over 200 children there), Pirate Laura would say, “Fire the cannon!” You could then hear a cannon blast, and a piece of candy would fire out from behind the ship! That was all thanks to an accomplice (me) hiding inside the car with a sound effect on my phone, a bluetooth speaker with some good bass, and a couple of bags of candy. Some figured out what was going on, but most everyone enjoyed the effect. Some wanted the cannon to fire candy directly into their bags, but the cannon’s aim was not quite that good. The pirate ship sails might have had a few “friendly fire” hits, too. But it was all fun.

A few people told Laura that hers was their favorite trunk of the night. It was a great time, as it is every year!

Behind the Scenes

This year, Laura was also in charge of all of the games for the festival. That included coming up with the ideas, getting or creating everything necessary for all of the games, and arranging for 40 volunteers to work the games. It was a big task, but she handled it well!

The only downside was that she would not have much time to set up her trunk between supervising the games and the time for the Trunk or Treat portion to start. No problem at all! The pirate ship was actually a prop for Laura’s last school program before she retired. At one point during the program, a few of the students were to “build” the ship, which meant that it needed to be able to be put together quickly and easily. After the program was over, Laura brought the ship home and said, “That might be my Trunk or Treat idea this year!” And as you can see, it was. After the event, we took the pirate ship back home to store it again, just in case. Because you never know when you might need a pirate ship!

Fun and Games

All of the games that Laura came up with (mostly from Google searches) had a Halloween theme. There was an eyeball race, where you had balance a ping-pong ball “eyeball” (complete with a painted pupil) on a character-painted spoon. There was a spider-web maze with yarn “webs” on hula hoops. There was pumpkin bowling and pumpkin sweeping. And then there was pumpkin golf.

Laura carved these three artificial pumpkins, and the object was to putt a golf ball in one of their mouths. It was challenging, but it was fun! And I loved the expressions that she carved on their faces, too.

But the most fun for me was getting to see Laura use her talents in all kinds of ways. She was just one of many that worked to make the event a success, but I was quite proud of her!

The Real Purpose

Of course, the real purpose of the event was to be an outreach to the community around our church building, to invite them into our church family and see a little bit of what we do. It was a success in that respect as well. I would guess that over half of the 600 people who were there were not from our church. And that was great.

If you are not a part of a loving church family, I would encourage you to find one. You are welcome to join ours if you are in our area. Or there are several others around the world, too.

When difficulties come, so many people say that they do not know how those without a church family make it through those times. We have seen it in our own lives, too. It is wonderful to have a group of people to support and encourage you in the good times and the difficult times, too. And we all work together to serve God and share his love with others, too.

A church family is a great thing.

And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. - 1 John 3:23

About the Photos

The pirate ship photo was taken with my camera. I had brought it with me, because I wanted to be sure to get an annual Trunk or Treat photo, since those are popular every year starting about mid-September, especially with the Pinterest crowd. As it turns out, three different versions of this photo were all that I took with my camera last night, because everything else kept us so busy. But that was what we were there for, after all.

The golf pumpkins photo was taken with my phone the day before the event when we were there setting everything up. I was glad I thought to take it. I probably should have taken photos of the other games that she created, too, because they were all great!

Photo: A single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee and GIMP.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: October 21, 2023
Location: Bartlett Woods Church of Christ, Bartlett, Tennessee