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ELKINS -- The First United Methodist Church and Our Town Inc. will host two of several special events scheduled in downtown Elkins Saturday.
The annual Fall Festival sponsored by the FUMC, which will feature a large number of activities for children, is scheduled to run from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the church's location on Kerens Avenue.
The event is free to the public and will be highlighted by trunk-or-treating in the FUMC parking lot behind Citizens Bank.
"We've had this event annually for years now and usually we have between 200 and 300 kids come through," Natasha Clark, Youth Minister at Elkins United Methodist Church, told The Inter-Mountain Monday. "This is probably my favorite community outreach that we do every year. It's really exciting to see all the kids in their costumes. It's a lot of fun seeing them all dressed up."
The Fall Festival will also feature several activities inside the church, including bouncy houses, games, face painting, a craft station and snacks. The event will also feature hay rides around the downtown streets, weather permitting.
"This activity is always really fun for everyone and the kids who come out are really appreciative," Clark said. "You wouldn't think that children that young would come and say thank you for doing this, but we usually have quite a few that do that, which is really exciting to see."
Earlier on Saturday, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., Our Town will offer a trick-or-treat tent set up at the Bialek Station Square Office Complex. Our Town officials will collect Christmas Tree decorated ornaments while handing out treats to children.
The ornaments were distributed to members of the public for decoration earlier this month. They will soon be placed on trees throughout downtown. The tree and ornament project was created to help celebrate the arrival of the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree on Nov. 4.
"During the same time we are distributing candy, we will be there collecting the Christmas Tree ornaments," Our Town volunteer Bobbi Trimboli told The Inter-Mountain. "So we will be prepared right after the trick-or-treating to put the ornaments on the Christmas trees and get those up."
There will also be downtown trick-or-treating for businesses and a Randolph County Humane Society adoption event billed as "Howl-O-Ween" at the Seneca Mall Atrium Saturday. Both of those events are scheduled from noon to 2 p.m.