Look, I'm no food allergy expert, but as a former child, I feel I have a fairly good handle on the kinds of happenings that make Halloween fun for kids. And unfortunately, the first annual Arizona Food Allergy Alliance (AFAA) Trunk-Or-Treat Event in Phoenix, Tucson, and Pinetop-Lakeside isn't one them. In fact, it seems kinda lame.
Trunk-Or-Treat (which sounds more like a threat than a holiday event) aims to provide "an opportunity for the food allergy community to come together and celebrate Halloween in a reduced risk environment" -- that is, a parking lot.
And if you think being a kid (with or without food allergies) and spending Halloween on a giant slab of concrete with a bunch of adults decorating trunks of cars and getting zero candy sounds pretty weak, wait until you hear the details:
1.) Optional Costumes Apparently, food allergies have some sort of tie-in to costume allergies.
2.) Decorating Trunks of Cars Save for the Christmas tree, do kids think any kind of supervised decorating is fun, let alone the backside of an automobile?
3.) Non-food "Treats" Think pencils, stickers, and "spinning tops" (spinning?) as a kid's bagful of Halloween bounty. Now think of something less sad. Like anything.
4.) Prizes for the Best Decorated Trunks See point number two.
Says AFAA President and Founder Lisa Horne, "Fun is not spelled C-A-N-D-Y..."
Maybe, but I'm pretty sure it's not spelled T-R-U-N-K either. Call me crazy, but I'd rather stay home and play Silent Hill on my XBOX or watch the Scream trilogy.
