Visitors of all ages enjoy trunk-or-treat at Grand Island Library

Story and Photos by Alice Gerard

Senior Contributing Writer

Trunk-or-treat at Grand Island Memorial Library, held Oct. 18, featured costumed characters distributing candy, an opportunity to climb into a fire truck, and much more.

Library Director Bridgette Heintz said, “I’m trying to remember how many times we’ve done this now. COVID threw everything off. I’d like to say this might be our sixth one since I’ve been here. Today, we’ve got the Bookmobile, the GI Fire Co. came, the GI Police Department came. We’ve got BACA, which is Bikers Against Child Abuse. The Friends of the (Grand Island Memorial) Library have a trunk here, Kiwanis, KOA. It’s one of our bigger community events.”

In addition, there were Halloween craft activities inside the library.

Heintz, who was dressed up as Jack Skellington from “The Nightmare Before Christmas,” said the thing that makes her happiest is when the planning is finished and the event is underway.

“Once I get the parking lot set up and everyone is here and it starts rolling,” Heintz said. “This right now makes me happy. The weather held out today. So, basically, the planning drives me nuts. On the day it comes together and all that planning comes to fruition and everybody’s showing up and having a good time, that’s what I like best about this.”

Jen Woroniecki, president of the Ladies’ Auxiliary of the Grand Island Fire Co., said, “We’re here to support the community and to hand out candy to the kids and show them we’re here, and have a good time.

She added that she likes “seeing all the kids in their costumes and having a great time. They all love seeing the fire truck. They’re so cute. It’s nice seeing all of the costumes and the creativity of it all.”

“There are a lot of kids here who are making a beeline for that fire truck,” Heintz said.

A furry visitor attracts attention.

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Participating in the library’s trunk-or-treat is one of the community outreach activities that the Ladies’ Auxiliary participates in.

“We are made up of the wives, daughters, sisters, mothers of the firemen of the fire company,” Woroniecki said. “We help the firefighters if there’s a really bad fire. We come in and we give them water. We cook for them. We make sure that they’re being taken care of. We do some fundraising. We have our chowder sale usually. Unfortunately, we’re not having it this year. Any fundraising you see us doing, (including) chicken dinners and meat raffles … any of the money we raise, we donate back to the community via the Neighbors Foundation or the Family Justice Center.

“We help the firefighters. We buy things for them. We purchase things they need around the firehall. We got them a new TV because their TV broke. They have a little place that they go to decompress so we give them a TV to watch while they’re in there. They’re volunteers, and they put in a lot of time and a lot of hours. We’re there to support them.”

Jessica stood in front of a trunk that was full of images from the movie “Frozen,” including a tiara. With her were her daughter and her mother. All three were in costume.

“I’m Elsa from Disney’s ‘Frozen,’ ” Jessica said. “And we have our little mini-Elsa here. My mom is Olaf, the snowman. My daughter is 3 and she loves this movie.

“It’s just very funny. Elsa is a great character, and there’s her sister, Anna. Olaf’s very funny, and I love the relationship between Elsa and Anna, the sisters.

“We put our costumes together. So, we’re all here celebrating Halloween.”