By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

From fundraising efforts to trunk or treating, several community entities are offering ways for Palisadians to gather this October.

Trunk or Treat
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will host its annual Trunk or Treat Halloween event on Saturday, October 18, beginning at 6 p.m.

“The entire Palisades community is invited to decorate their cars and kids are invited to trunk or treat,” Pacific Palisades Ward Bishop Taylor Mammen told the Palisadian-Post. “This is an annual tradition, and even though our building is still going through smoke remediation, there’s great desire to get together.”

In addition to trunk or treating, the event will include dinner, a costume contest and slide. It will take place in the church’s parking lot, which is located at 575 Los Liones Drive.

‘The Birds’ Halloween Party
Palisades Recreation Center

Each year, Palisades Recreation Center hosts a Halloween-themed event, and 2025 is no exception. With a theme of Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds,” this year’s Halloween Party will take place on Saturday, October 25, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. with “fun for all ages.”

Festivities will include food trucks (The Love Bird and The Beignet Truck), spooky crafts, inflatables, games and prizes, a scavenger hunt, coloring contest, trick or treat stations, and a 360-degree photo experience. There will be a costume parade at 12 p.m.

Palisades Recreation Center is located at 851 Alma Real Drive. The event, which is free to attend, will take place in the courtyard and inside of the small gym, which reopened for limited programming at the end of July.

Not-So-Creepy Crawlers
Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains

The first workshop in this year’s WiLD CiTY series will be Not-So-Creepy Crawlers on Saturday, October 18, from 6 to 8 p.m.

The series is hosted by Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, with the workshop led by Darlyn Prieto, environmental scientist and outreach/communication associate at Santa Monica Mountains Fund.

“The Santa Monica Mountains after dark is a completely different world,” read an event description. “Most of the animals we normally see during the day are fast asleep. But as the sun sets, different kinds of animals, like scorpions, are just waking up.”

With UV flashlights, participants will hike a two-and-a-half-mile trail under the stars, searching for “these mysterious creatures in their natural habitat.”

“Scorpions often get a bad rap, but they play an important role in the ecosystem and they’re not as scary as they seem,” RCDSMM wrote. “This adventure is all about opening minds and seeing the beauty in misunderstood wildlife. By the end of the night, you might just walk away with a newfound appreciation for these amazing arachnids.”

Half of the funds raised from the workshop will go to SAMO Fund, which “works to protect and encourage appreciation and understanding of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.”

The workshop will take place at Paramount Ranch, located at 2903 Cornell Road in Agoura Hills. Tickets are available for purchase at rcdsmm.org/wild-city.

Fall Community Picnic & Glass Pumpkin Sale
Lowe Family YMCA Pumpkin Patch

Following its opening on Thursday, October 2, the Lowe Family YMCA Pumpkin Patch will host a Fall Community Picnic and Glass Pumpkin Sale at on Saturday, October 11.

The Fall Community Picnic will take place between 12 and 4 p.m., with spooky stories being read/told for kids by Theatre Palisades performers from 2 to 4 p.m.

“Bring a blankets and chairs to enjoy outdoor fun like frisbees and bubbles,” read an event description. “See your friends and neighbors, catch up, laugh, hug, family time, and community.”

There will also be food trucks on site, as well as opportunities to purchase pumpkins or walk through the art installation at Winding Way.

The annual Glass Pumpkin Sale, presented by Santa Monica College Art Department, will take place between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. with blown glass pumpkins available for purchase.

“Join the fun at the pumpkin patch and purchase a beautiful glass pumpkin to last all year round,” read the description. “A portion of the proceeds go to the YMCA.”

The patch hours are Monday to Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is located at Simon Meadow, at the corner of Temescal Canyon Road and Sunset Boulevard.

Palisades Gift Shop Pop-Up
Night of the Jack

Palisades Gift Shop will host a series of pop-ups at the marketplace at Night of the Jack—an immersive Halloween experience at King Gillette Ranch in Calabasas.

“We’re popping up all over the place over the next few months,” Palisades Gift Shop said. “Our first pop up of this season will be at Night of the Jack, where we will be selling lots of fall items and a special Malibu collection.”

Night of the Jack is designed for attendees of all ages, with “vast grounds of intricately hand-carved and illuminated jack’olanterns” throughout a walking trail around the ranch’s grounds. Festivities include a live pumpkin carver, food trucks and a “Spookeasy Bar.”

The pop-up dates are October 11, 12, 19, 23 and 26 from 5:30 to 10 p.m. King Gillette Ranch is located at 26800 Mulholland Highway. Tickets and more information are available at nightofthejack.com.

Boo Bash
Marquez Charter Elementary School

Marquez Charter Elementary School will host its annual Boo Bash on Sunday, October 26, beginning at 12 p.m. at Pacific Palisades Highlands Park, located at 1950 Palisades Drive.

“Calling all ghosts and goblins, witches and wizards,” read an event flyer. “You are invited to a fun afternoon filled with games, activities, tricks and treats. Join us for Marquez Charter’s community Halloween party.”

The event is hosted by Friends of Marquez, the parent-run nonprofit that funds supplemental educational programs at the schooo. Tickets go on sale beginning October 12.

Palisadian Arden Seretean Shares a First-Hand Account of the Palisades Fire and Debris Removal at Her Home

By ARDEN SERETEAN | Intern

My name is Arden Seretean, and Pacific Palisades has been my home my entire life. It’s where I walk my dogs every evening, take dance classes, perform for the community, make documentaries, write poetry, participate in the Fourth of July parade and watch the fireworks from Pali High’s field.

The Palisades holds a special place in my heart, and losing parts of it to the fires has only strengthened my commitment to telling its story. Having documented this place my whole life, I felt an even stronger desire to create a documentary for the Palisadian-Post during my time as an intern.

Below is a first-hand account of the Palisades fire, from January 7 through the start of June, as well as a poem.

01/07/25

The day we were told to evacuate.

We saw the fire growing on the other side of the hill. A news team asked if they could film the fires from our deck. We even locked our doors, thinking we might return.

Alarms blared. Traffic was so jammed that people had to abandon their cars on Pacific Coast Highway, taking only what they could carry.

01/09/25

Photos from two days after the fire.

No residents were allowed to approach their homes. Most streets were closed off, and from anywhere you stood, you could see smoke billowing from the fires. The wind pushed the flames several football fields per second.

I remember frantically watching the news, desperately hoping our house had survived. An article showed a fire burning inside someone’s house, and for a moment, I thought it was mine. It was around 2 a.m., and I completely broke down, panicked, thinking it could be our house.

Here are photos of our home then, taken by someone who was able to get access up there.

01/11/25

Trying to get closure.

We waited in a line for 10 hours where cars filled the streets for many blocks—everyone desperately wanting to see if their house had survived. Only two cars were allowed up every hour.

After waiting, the National Guard let us see our house for a maximum of 10 minutes, as I was seeking some closure before returning to college. I couldn’t recognize anything; nothing looked like our home, and I was in denial for many months after.

05/30/25

Pacific Palisades.

Our drive to our house that day showed the damage in Pacific Palisades. Our neighborhood was completely gone.

05/30/25

Debris removal at our house.

Our mom let the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers handle it, but we stayed during the process in case we saw anything that had survived and could be salvaged. We wore masks, boots, suits—everything. We couldn’t save anything because the floors had collapsed on top of each other, making anything inaccessible.

05/31/25

Day two of the debris removal by the Army Corps.

The team worked quickly and efficiently. By the end of day two, noticeable progress had been made. We had very little time to look through the debris for anything we could save, while they took their lunch break.

05/31/25

Our neighbor’s house to the right.

I documented my neighbor’s home; they lived to the right of us. They saw their house on fire through their security cameras. They did not use the Army Corps for debris cleanup. Nothing was recognizable—just gone.

05/31/25

Debris removal is complete.

Here’s when the Army Corps completed our debris removal. Unfortunately, in the process, there was nothing for us to save. It took them just a few days to fully clear out our house. It was unfamiliar and devastating seeing our home this way. Everything was completely gone.

06/01/25

Ready for approval.

Our house was cleaned up and cleared out. The debris removal was finished, and they prepared the property for inspection and fenced everything off to mark the completion of their work. Here’s our house in its entirety.

“My Thoughts Undress the Silence”

I will never wake up to you again,
my heart murmurs,
as my eyes remember the sun’s warm fingertips resting on your cheek of glass.

I wonder if you’d still recognize me as I stand over your body—splintered into the things I loved most
strings from a burned piano,
photographs collapsing from lack of air,
letters torn from their origins—

all spilling into the bed of a truck.

I miss your moon-colored skin
how you stood like a soldier
once a mother shielding me
from the heavy blankets of night
Now you lie cold, shaking

I try to cradle you,
gathering your shattered bones,
cupping them in my hands like how you used to hold me

My heart soaks my chest as I cry a little too
I don’t know how to deal with this pain as I write about loss to erase the feeling

Losing you left a dent in me
while the smaller things tug at me like an impatient child

Your smile that greeted me at the door
the letters you kept safe inside your ribs,
the shelter of your spine.

Since losing you,
I’ve been in constant motion—sliding from cousin’s house to grocery store, pet store to gas station—never really landing

I’ve become weightless
A kind of floating that feels like falling

I never thought you could burn, with
shoulders so strong they mocked the heaviness of rain,
arms so warm they held me as if I were fragile.

You were not meant to be a sandcastle for the tides
Not meant to melt away
But the fire found your spine
Bathed in your lungs
Consumed your skin
Until all that was left was sand.

My thoughts undress the silence