PENDLETON — The ongoing coronavirus pandemic may have subdued most of the traditional spooky celebrations this Halloween, but a few local events still gave a chance for kids to safely show off their costumes and collect some candy on Saturday, Oct. 31.

In lieu of the annual trick-or-treating event held in downtown Pendleton, the Heritage Station Museum partnered with the Pendleton Downtown Association, the Pendleton Chamber of Commerce and numerous local businesses and organizations to throw a drive-thru trick-or-treat event in its parking lot.

Shannon Gurenhagen, the museum’s marketing and tour coordinator who helped organize the event, didn’t know what to expect for turnout. But before she knew it, cars were lined along Southwest Frazer Avenue filled with children eager to wind through the lot and fill their buckets with candy.

“We’re grateful to be able to get to do it and at least give the kids something to do downtown,” Gurenhagen said.

Clouds of artificial fog flowed through the lot dotted with people dressed as witches, ghosts. ghouls and more, while cars slowly made their way around, stopping to take one of the prepackaged bags of candy, admire the Halloween-themed performances from the Pendleton Ballet Theater or try to avoid a jump scare from the “Zombie Response Outbreak Team.”

The event was designed with measures in place to reduce the risks of spreading COVID-19, with all those participating donning protective face coverings and over 900 bags of candy prepackaged while wearing masks and gloves.

Over in Hermiston, cars began clogging up one lane of traffic on South Highway 395 all the way to East Highland Avenue while waiting to enter the drive-thru trunk-or-treat event organized by Hermiston Parks and Recreation at the Hermiston Community Center.

More local businesses and organizations lined the parking lot in decorated displays in and around their vehicle and dropped candy in the open trunks of vehicles driving by.

While missing out on important time to connect with their students in the classroom due to the virus, a group from the Association of Hermiston Teachers passed out candy and got to see some of their own students in the process.

A newer group to the community — Black Lives Matter Allies of East Oregon — was also present and used the opportunity to show the community that their movement is about more than protesting.

“People want to focus on the looting or defunding the police, but it’s not just that,” said Oliver Brown, a Pendleton business owner who is Black and has taken a leadership role in the group. “It’s really all about making our community feel safer.”

A number of local churches also organized their own trunk-or-treating events, while the Pendleton Free Methodist Church tried another take on classic trick-or-treating. Rather than having kids come to them, volunteers from the church brought the candy to them.

After collecting roughly 600 pounds of candy and repackaging it in individual bags under COVID-19 guidelines in the past week, volunteers from the church went out before sundown in seven different areas of the city and delivered candy to its neighborhoods.

For the most part though, the streets were mostly void of usual throngs of trick-or-treaters knocking door-to-door throughout the night.

And while Halloween may be infamous for mischief and petty crimes during a normal year, Hermiston Police Chief Jason Edmiston and Pendleton Police Chief Stuart Roberts said Monday, Nov. 2, that the night was “uncharacteristically quiet.”

“As we have done in the past, we did pay some overtime for additional coverage, but as compared to previous years, Saturday night was very calm,” Edmiston stated in an email.