With COVID-19 cases continuing to rise in Montana, Mountain View Meadows is looking ahead to your health and well-being on Halloween. The Internet is alive with alternatives for the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating kids of all ages so look forward to this time of year. “After some brainstorming, we came up with an alternative for a safer Halloween at Mountain View Meadows,” said MVM Director of Design, Rebecca Ryland. “On Halloween from 6:00 PM till 7:30 PM, some ghouls of our own in masks and gloves will welcome kids to pick-up pre-bagged goodies at the pocket park at the corner of Stacia and S. Alice Street. A lighted path through the spooky park will lead to a table where each child gets a Halloween bag full of candy.” Mountain View Meadows, the MVM HOA and Sierra Custom Homes will sponsor the decorating of the park and the treats, explained Ryland, and made possible through donations from a growing list of area businesses including Finstad’s Carpet One, Weatherall Builders, Wells Fargo Bank, First Interstate Bank, Stockman Insurance, Mann Mortgage, Opportunity Bank of Montana, and 1st Montana Land Title Co.

It is not the intention of Mountain View Meadows to tell anyone that they can or cannot trick-or-treat door-to-door. That is a decision to be made according to recommendations by the Lewis and Clark County Dept. of Health. However, pre-bagged treats offer a safe alternative to traditional trick-or-treating. The kids may not get as much candy as they would going door-to-door, but providing a special haunted place for kids to pick up carefully-stuffed treat bags not only helps protect these young spirits during the current health crisis but also protects the health and well-being of those kind-hearted folks who would have, before COVID, welcomed the onslaught of young Halloween ghouls and ghosts at their doors.

If you live at Mountain View Meadows and feel uncomfortable opening your door this Halloween but would still like to participate in keeping the Halloween spirit alive, drop off an unopened bag of candy at the office at 431 S. Alice St. and we’ll use it to help stuff the treat bags. Your name will be added to a sign that will be on display in the pocket park on Halloween night showing off the businesses and residents that have contributed to a safer Halloween at Mountain View Meadows. For more information or to volunteer to help decorate, call Rebecca at 431-7680 or email risland05@yahoo.com.