Ghouls are out and about in town this time of year. On the rainy day of October 26, children, students and many community members came to downtown Whitewater to show off their costumes. The Ghouls Night Out event is hosted by Discover Whitewater, as a favorite Halloween tradition, in addition to the annual Halloween Party.
The event included many small businesses, Sweet Spot Bakehouse and Café, Whitewater Cinemas, Fairfield Inn & Suites, BaristaCats Café, Revamp Nutrition and many others. Alongside small businesses were many large corporations, such as Walmart and Culvers. Along with numerous businesses, Whitewater police cars were parked outside the local Walmart. This year, the number of cute costumes matched that of Halloween itself.
There is a strong sense of community that comes together as costumes come into play, little children run around, adults chat, students take study breaks. The main costumes spotted this year include princesses and many Barbies. The weather may not be great, but the decorations are. There’s a balloon display, hosted by ReVamp Nutrition, scary spiders, spooky ghosts and more, taking over the entire downtown area.
“We are hoping to meet new families and as it went so well last year we are encouraging people to come out for a free night out with the kids; we’re very family-friendly with the display and the coloring pages,” said Jerrica Newby, owner and operator of Revamp Nutrition in Whitewater.
This was their second year participating in this event, as they are a newer, small business. This event is very community oriented and was a way to show Whitewater members what their small business is all about.
The other new thing in town in recent years was BaristaCats Café owner Natalie Ferns who shared her thoughts on the event.
“I expected there to be a lot more participation this year than last year because we have the cats this year,” said Natalie Ferns, owner of BaristaCats Café.
It looked very different from the previous year because even though the events and decorations were the same, individuals in the community were able to be exposed to the cats this year, although reservations were still required.
“I was looking forward to seeing all the kids in their costumes and all the fun events in the community,” Ferns said of what excited him as a business owner.
This event took place from 4-7pm on the first night of Halloweekend and was a cute and fun way to see everyone in the community come together. The streets were crowded and the amount of publicity for this event helped increase the number of participants. From the city center to the side streets, they were filled with families of children in costumes, all ages from babies to adults.
This event is annual and will mark the kickoff of Halloween festivities. To learn more about this event and others by Discover Whitewater, visit their scheduled event. Be sure to look out for all the creative and fun costumes this year.
