Halloween in Gilpin Court

Some people from FSC went down to Gilpin Court this evening to help run some games at a carnival sponsored by a local church. As they told us many time, they do NOT celebrate Halloween and this was by no means a Halloween party. But hey, today is Halloween and that's where I was, so I had Halloween in Gilpin Court.

We had planned on doing this for a while. Ross and I are always talking about how people need to get involved in all parts of the city, and here we had an opportunity to practice what we preach. I totally didn't want to go. I had so much work to do and just wanted to stay home, watch MTV and knit. But no, we went.

Ross, MattWhite, and I piled into the car and drove down to Gilpin Court. We left at 5:15 and it took us an hour to find where we were going. I don't know if you've ever *been* to Gilpin Court, but I just know that every ounce of my suburban upbringing was pushing to the front of my brain, telling me to get the mess out of there. But, we pressed on and figured out where we were supposed to be.

The boys manned the Dodge Ball game, while Jennifer, Georgia sans Child (not to be confused with Georgia with Child), and I took over the "Krazy Kans" game. I have no idea why it couldn't just be called "Crazy Cans." Maybe spelling it correctly wouldn't be crazy enough. Anyway, it was just a simple game where we set up three wooden bottles (not cans, strangely enough) and people tried to knock them over with beanbags. Simple, right? Or how about THE MOST FUN AND POPULAR GAME EVER. The people were OBESESSED with this game, or else they just thought Jennifer was pretty, cause she was the one passing out the beanbags. Either way, we were a hit. There were toddlers that wanted to play over and over again (maybe because we would make the bottles fall down whenever they played) and even a grandmother who must have played 15 times. It was great.

So, by the end of the night, I was so glad I went. We were blessed with excellent weather and a very strong and visible police presence who kept everyone there under control and kept the rif-raff to a minimum. It was great to spend an evening watching those kids have some good, clean fun. I hope we get to help out with something like that again soon.