When the Palisadian-Post walked up to the front of Marquez Elementary School on Wednesday, Oct. 8, Marquez Halloween Festival co-chairs Loren Schmalle and Geoff Grant were standing precariously on chairs to hang a banner for the event—Grant in a festive orange tie.
To their left was a witch crashed into a tree (a decoration the pair had hung at the beginning of the month to signal the onset of the spooky season), and at their feet lay candy corn stencils on the sidewalk.
Schmalle and Grant, Marquez dads infamous for going whole hog with Halloween decorations at the school, appear to be just getting started.
Rich Schmitt/Staff Photographer
The dads have been good friends for years and this is the third year in a row that they have served as co-chairs for the annual Marquez Halloween Festival, a highly-anticipated fundraising event filled with all things fall.
In keeping with their tradition, the pair has been building up excitement for the festival since the first week of October by decorating the school for Halloween—all under the cover of darkness (or just over the weekends) so the decorations are a surprise for students when they get to school. They decorate throughout the month leading up to Halloween.
“This does raise money for the school but it’s really a community builder,” Schmalle told the Post of the festival.
The event will feature carnival rides and games, a cakewalk competition between the grades, a bicycle giveaway, cornucopia patch, performances by Fancy Feet and the STAR program, a haunted house put on by the fifth grade, and of course plenty of candy. There will even be a huge aquarium filled with goldfish to be won.
“Everybody in the community has, or has had, a goldfish,” said parent volunteer Ericka Gair of the popular prize.
Grant and Schmalle plan to go all out with decorations for the event’s country festival theme, Schmalle saying, “We’ll do anything to make [Marquez] not look like a school.”
Grant said they prepare for the festival throughout the year, ordering decorations and recruiting community members to help in whatever way they can. Local businesses can sponsor booths, students of all ages can get volunteer hours for helping out, and parents are invited to volunteer with event organization or on the day of the event.
The Marquez Halloween Festival is Sunday, Oct. 26 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Marquez Elementary. Wear a costume and get free popcorn.
For more information or to sponsor a booth, contact Loren Schmalle at (310) 600-1714 or Geoff Grant at (310) 993-0222.
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