The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Halloween came early to the mall

By Natasha Collins

Cavemen and dinosaurs romped around Town Center Mall last week as if the Stone Age had returned. Mermaids and pirates bubbled up from the deep, and witches and clowns whisked into town to cast spells of fright and laughter.

More than 1,000 children (and around 3,000 adults) celebrated an early Halloween Oct. 25, taking part in a costume contest, decorating pumpkins, making scary wind socks and other Halloween activities sponsored by the mall and the city of Sunnyvale.

Julie Vasquez, 9, decorated her miniature pumpkin to look like a scary monster--giving it green yarn hair and drawing red and green eyes. "I made it for my daddy," said the little girl, dressed as a pumpkin. "It is a nice monster."

John Rogers, 6, decorated his windsock with a pumpkin face on one side and a black cat on the other. "It is going to scare away all the monsters," John promised. "They'll be afraid of the sparkles and scary faces."

Turnout for the event was far greater than expected, said Julie Vennewitz, community relations specialist for Sunnyvale Leisure Services. "The turnout has been great and everyone seems to be having fun," she said..

The tin man, Brandon Contrenas, 5, picked out his costume at the fabric store. He helped his mother make the costume by pushing down sewing machine pedal.

Parents became as involved as the children in the costume contest.

"It was just as much fun for me to make the costumes and get them all dressed up," said Martha Mantoverio, whose 10-month-old son was dressed as a lion and 4-year-old daughter as a mermaid.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, October 29, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.