‘Trunk or Treat’ events on Long Island
This Halloween, Vanessa Espinal of Brentwood won’t just be providing costumes for her family members — she’ll also be dressing up the trunk of her car.
Espinal plans to participate in Brentwood’s second annual Trunk-or-Treat event scheduled for Oct. 29, when community members and organizations decorate cars, park them all close together, and let kids “trick or treat” for candy and trinkets from trunk to trunk rather than door to door.
Last year, Espinal and her husband and their two daughters — and their dog — dressed in Ghost Busters costumes and decorated the trunk of their Honda Pilot as the Ghost Busters’ Ectomobile. This year, she says she thinks the family will do a “breakfast” theme. “My husband is going to dress up as the egg,” she says of hubby, William. Espinal plans to be a slice of toast, and the girls, Angelina, 13, and Bianca, 8, are currently sparring over who will be the bacon and who will be the pancake, Espinal says. They plan to decorate the trunk as a griddle. Oh, and their Shih Tzu, Sassy, will be hash browns.
The free Brentwood event is sponsored by Suffolk County Legis. Monica R. Martinez, and will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. in the parking lot of her office at 55 Second Ave. in Brentwood. “This year we’ll have about 24 cars,” Martinez says.
Other communities on Long Island are celebrating with free “Trunk or Treat” meetups as well. Oceanside has its Trunk or Treat on the weekend after Halloween, Nov. 4, from 9 to 11 a.m. in the parking lot of Tower Funeral Home, 2681 Long Beach Rd.
This is the sixth annual Trunk or Treat for Oceanside — that community’s event started when superstorm Sandy canceled Halloween in 2012, says John Madden of Oceanside. He says he helped launch the event after his daughter, who was 3 at the time, didn’t understand why she couldn’t dress up as Izzy from “Jake and the Neverland Pirates” as planned. “She didn’t understand that the town was wiped out by a hurricane,” Madden says. “I had heard of these Trunk or Treat events in other places. It stuck ever since then on the weekend after Halloween. We look at it as a chance to wear the costumes one more time.”