Hundreds of families kicked off their Halloween celebrations this weekend with window painting, trick-or-treating and the annual costume parade in downtown Downers Grove.
On Saturday morning, the Downers Grove Rotary Club and Downtown Management Corporation sponsored their annual Halloween window painting. In exchange for non-perishable food donations, families were supplied with paint to decorate the windows of several downtown businesses.
On Sunday, more than 200 kids walked down Main Street for the Downers Grove Lions Club's annual costume parade. After the parade, kids were able to trick-or-treat for several hours at various downtown merchants.
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DFL56
7:55 am on Monday, October 29, 2012
Love the idea and it was fun but after 3pm about half of the stores had signs up saying 'sorry, out of candy'. I'm no 'job creator' so maybe I don't get marketing but wouldn't you want to stock up so you would be sure not to run out? My wife and I were taking our kids into stores we've never been in and just the fact of going in made me more aware of some stores that I'll go back to for sure. The kids didn't seem to mind (they are too young to mind) but I was disappointed to keep walking past store after store with those signs up. Didn't anyone think to run to a corner store and get some more candy!
George Swimmer
11:06 am on Monday, October 29, 2012
DFL56
Your comments are noted. The downtown DG businesses work hard on getting it right. Running a small business is a continuing struggle and negative comments only add to it. The window painting, the Rotary and Lions Clubs events, the art and crafts shows, the cars shows, and so much more are the end results of business owners and community groups spending countless hours of volunteer time and significant funds on making DG and its downtown the beautiful and unique place that it is. I feel certain that next year there will be treats for all.
Tony Cesare
11:08 am on Monday, October 29, 2012
I agree, it seemed ridiculous to me that a store owner, knowing what a potentially amazing marketing event this could be, wouldn't stock up on as much candy as they could.
The other thing I didn't care for was the traffic management. If the city wants to keep this tradition alive they need to close main street downtown after the parade while the kids are out and about. Cars and kids in costumes don't mix.
DFL56
11:53 am on Monday, October 29, 2012
Don't get me wrong George S! I love Downtown DG. My wife and I moved to DG just over a year ago from the city and the fact that we live just a few blocks from downtown has been great. (I was terrified of living in a cookie-cutter sub-division where you had to drive everywhere but our neighborhood around Randall Park is anything but that.) The Friday night car shows are great and I also really like the Rotary summer festival. I think downtown DG and the events put on there make the town feel more lively to me than, say, Lisle, Westmont, or Clarendon Hills. Although I do like those towns as well for things they do thru their park districts and good restaurants (like one I just went to near the Westmont train station). I'm hoping we can evolve more like downtown La Grange although I think they have wider sidewalks and can somehow get more outdoor restaurant seating in place in the summer. (I'm a bit of an urban planning nerd in that I downloaded the award winning DG planning document and am really hoping for a lot of the downtown ideas in there (as well as for near the Fairview stop) to come to pass. Anyway, love the business trick or treating, just next time stock up more (the candy keeps pretty long!).