With Halloween fast approaching, some families are looking to go car-to-car instead of door-to-door in trunk-or-treats all over Lee County.
Trinity United Methodist and Greater Peace Missionary Baptist churches, however, will go all out with trunk-or-treat at Orangefest 2011.
A trend taking off late last decade, trunk-or-treat is when a church group or a community decorates the trunks of their cars and fills them with sweets.
Children show off their costumes and fill their candy bags in what some parents believe to be a safer environment than traveling door-to-door around town.
Opelika's Trinity United is partnering with nearby Greater Peace to host its second-annual Orangefest, which includes a trunk-or-treat Sunday from 4-7 p.m.
Amy McKay, organizer at Trinity United, said the churches simply want to invite the community to find fellowship at a free event.
"Orangefest, I would say, is a community outreach," McKay said. "Kind of a Halloween alternative for the community and just a way for us to reach out and welcome them to come to our campus and see what we're about."
McKay said everyone hands out candy and prizes from their decorated trunk, her favorite last year being one converted into a karaoke stage.
McKay said while children are welcome to wear costumes if they want, Orangefest is more about fall fellowship than a Halloween themed party.
"It's more pumpkins and orange," McKay said, "definitely more fall festival."
The Auburn Christian Student Center held its own trunk-or-treat devotional Tuesday night.
Mary Brinkerhoff ministers to the ACSC with her husband Jim, and she planned their trunk-or-treat. She said the devotional always takes place the Tuesday before Halloween as a way for students to connect with members of the Auburn Church of Christ, but still have time to celebrate Halloween on their own.
"Our main purpose is to promote resident-student relationships with the residents at church because the residents are the ones who decorate their trunks and hand out food," Brinkerhoff said.
In addition to sweets, attendees got what every college student loves any time of year: a free meal. Volunteers decorated their cars and served students in the ACSC parking lot.
One trunk had sandwiches, another had fruit, chips and drinks and the rest were filled with candy. There also was a costume contest for attendees.
"We usually have 175 students or so that participate," Brinkerhoff said. "It's always a very well-attended event. It's something everybody really looks forward to."
While the ACSC celebrated fellowship among the congregation, organizers of Orangefest are preparing for a big show. The festival and trunk-or-treat will stretch across the entire church campus.
"We take up the whole block from Eighth to Ninth Street," McKay said. "That whole block will be activities."
McKay said the churches would continue to host Orangefest at no cost to visitors as many years as possible to spread their message.
"It's just sharing the love of Jesus with the community," McKay said.
Turnout for last year's Orangefest was more than 1,500, McKay said. She said organizers are planning for approximately 2,000 this year.
"It was a lot of fun last year," McKay said, "a lot of faces that I had never seen. That was wonderful, to see a lot of people on our campus that I had never met before."
Brinkerhoff said she thinks ACSC members value their trunk-or-treat experience.
"In addition to getting a free meal ... and the camaraderie of dressing up and having fun doing that, I do think that they get to know some of our resident families better. because they don't just hand them the food, but they interact with them and ask them questions," Brinkerhoff said. "Like some of them will make them sing a song or do something before they'll give them their treat."
For more information on Orangefest, call Trinity UMC at (334) 745-2632.
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