PHOTO GALLERY: Excited kids flock to drive-through trunk or treat in Chester

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2020 Telegraph Publishing LLC

Cars filled with excited children lined the Green Mountain High School driveway well before the 6 p.m. start time for the Halloween celebration on Saturday. Dressed in orange, Chester-Andover Elementary teacher Frank Kelley welcomed families and directed traffic.

Waiting for the kids to cruise by were ghouls, superheroes and even a cow and more than a dozen spooky and funny cars and trucks loaded with candy. This is CAES’ Covid-19 “drive-through” version of “trunk or treat.”

For those who don’t have young children, trunk or treat is a way to do trick or treating in a rural community where kids are not going to walk a tenth to a quarter of a mile between houses on a dirt road in the dark. Instead, people decorate their cars and don costumes in an open area and kids go from car to car scoring candy.

In recent years, trunk or treat has been held on Cobleigh Field and at Chester-Andover, but this year organizers came up with the drive-through as a way to keep a distance but still give children a chance to have fun  — and get some candy.

As the event began, cars inched along the parking lot stopping at each decorated car where the trunk dwellers left their lairs to distribute candy to costumed kids – some children sitting in open hatchback to show off their costumes. By 6:30, the cars were backed up along Rt. 103 almost to the Heritage Deli.

Check out some of the festivities planned for other area towns here.

Click any photo to launch the gallery. All photos by Shawn Cunningham.