'Look up, down and sideways': annual Halloween haunt in Georgina transforms into spooky drive-thru

Scary fun won't take a COVID-19 back seat at Hawkins Halloween Haunt for Hunger

Yorkregion.com
Oct. 26, 2020
Amanda Persico and Kim Zarour

Be prepared to be scared.

The annual Hawkins Halloween Haunt for Hunger is still a go this year.

But the up-close and scary haunted house will take a back seat along the spooky drive-thru event.

“We had to reinvent it for this year,” said Laurie Pagman-Carriere, the mastermind behind the frightful fun on Hawkins Street in Sutton.

“I shed a few tears. I was worried we were not able to do it this year.”

Something that started decades ago with a few Halloween decorations has grown exponentially into a community tradition that sees the front lawn converted into ghoulish scenes with creepy clowns and live zombies.

But the current COVID-19 pandemic made hosting a haunted house type event even more unnerving.

Instead, the Pagman-Carriere family converted the small end of the street into a bone-chilling drive-thru complete with “a lot of inflatables, a lot of lights and cool projections on the walls.”

The hair-raising drive-thru runs daily 7 to 9:30 p.m. until Halloween night.

“It’s tradition,” Pagman-Carriere said. “We’re a family just trying to have fun. Look up, down and sideways, there’s plenty to see.”

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And there will definitely be a few live creatures that haunt the route, she added.

Not only has the current COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on trick-or-treat fun, but also costume and entertainment related businesses, such as Showcase Costume Rentals, Entertainers and More -- a boutique costume shop run by Pagman-Carriere’s daughter, Crystal Pagman.

Usually, this is prime time for costume rentals, from Halloween to holiday rentals.

“It’s almost non-existent. Everything entertainment-wise took a huge hit. COVID-19 is hurting a lot of businesses,” Pagman-Carriere said.

Crystal turned to creative lawn announcements to help supplement the costume rental business.

This isn’t the first time the Hawkins Halloween Haunt had to reinvent its spooktacular display.

A couple of years ago, the street was hit with a microburst, with high winds that clawed through the yard, upturning a zombie graveyard and ripping away portions of the haunted house.

“Everything was strapped down,” Pagman-Carriere said. “Sometimes, Mother Nature is not our friend.”

After a moment of tears, the family bucked up and recreated the scene days before Halloween.

The province has made it clear: Traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating is a no for regions under modified Stage 2 COVID-19 restrictions. And that includes York Region.

But the haunting on Hawkins street is still boasting to be frightful fun for food.

As in years past, the Pagman-Carriere family is collecting non-perishable food for the Georgina Community Food Pantry as well as unwrapped toys for local Christmas toy drives, with contactless donation bins along the scary route.

“We go right from Halloween to Christmas,” Pagman-Carriere said. “Halloween is not just about candy. It’s about engaging and giving back to the community.”

The family plans to transform the haunted drive-thru into a dazzling spirit of Christmas light show fundraiser in support of the food pantry and local holiday basket campaigns.

While residents are encouraged not to go trick-or-treating this year, Halloween can still be just as haunting.

York Region public health offers these spooky alternatives:

• Host a virtual party to show off costumes;

• Organize a Halloween-style Easter Egg hunt in your backyard or in your home;

• Decorate each door in your home and go trick-or-treating indoors;

• Stick glow-in-the-dark stickers to goody bags and hide them in the backyard. Give each child a flashlight at dusk and send them searching for treats; and

• Watch family-friendly Halloween movies such as the “Goonies,” “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown,” “Hocus Pocus” and “Casper.”

For other ideas, check out York Region’s Halloween Pinterest page.

If you choose to trick-or-treat outdoors despite recommendations, here’s what York Region Public Health advises:

• Stay home if you or our kids have symptoms, no matter how mild;

• Only trick-or-treat with members of your direct household and everyone should wear face masks;

• Stick to your own neighbourhood and line up two metres apart at doorsteps;

• Costume masks are no substitute for face masks and should not be worn over face masks; and

• Avoid touching anything; use hand sanitizer between houses.

If you choose to hand out treats despite recommendations, public health advises to wear a face mask or covering and use tongs to handout candy instead of leaving a bowl out.

Students are allowed to wear costumes to school as in past year. But there will be no sharing of treats, Halloween dances or costume parades.

And students are reminded costume masks do not take the place of cloth masks or face coverings that are mandated for Grade 4 students and above.