October might be the month of pumpkin carving, spooky decorations, candy confections, and bone-chilling movies, but an annual fundraiser outside of Bancroft is a reminder that it also kicks off the holiday season — the time to think about others.
Burke’s Barnyard, located at 4169 Boulter Road in the Boulter hills 30 minutes northeast of Bancroft in North Hastings, is hosting its 4th annual Halloween extravaganza on Saturday, October 19th from 1 to 7 p.m.
A culmination of efforts of the whole community, the event invites visitors and community members to get dressed up in their costumes for a variety of fun games, activities, sweet treats, and a vendor market.
Admission for the event is a non-perishable food item to be donated to the North Hastings Community Cupboard.
Melissa and Gary Burke, the owners of Burke’s Barnyard (and Burke’s Bounty Microgreens, which often donates overstock to the food bank), are hoping to beat their record of having collected 262 pounds of donated food in 2022.
“We like to give back and everybody needs food, so it’s really about bringing people through to have fun for a cause,” says Melissa. “It was never about making money.”
Burke’s Barnyard is a four-acre farm available for events and features campsites, animal meet ‘n greets, and a farmstand of local goods. The Burkes, along with their now-adult children, first began hosting the Halloween event when they turned their farm into a business in 2021.
“We used to take our kids to these kinds of events every year and we just love Halloween,” Melissa says. “It’s one of our favourite holidays and we find it a lot of fun just dressing up and taking the kids out to get pumpkins and spending time outside. We visited a lot of farms ourselves, so we had the thought to do it here because there isn’t really anything like it in the area.”
Anticipating a turnout of more than 200 people, the family-friendly event will offer a trick-or-treating scavenger hunt. Kids will be given a list of riddles leading them to different spooky displays around the property — graveyards, aliens, pumpkin patches — to collect stamps. When they finish their card, they can cash it in for a bag of candy.
“Every year we’re adding more inflatables and displays and trying to make it fun and keep it exciting,” Melissa says. “It’s different every year.”
There will also be face painting (by donation), and the local Pop Over Parties will be on site with Nerf guns, bow sand arrows, tug-of-war, and more family fun activities and games. Hot chocolate and candy apples will be available, as well as a campfire for making your own ‘smores.
Kids can also meet the Burke’s Barnyard’s pot-bellied pigs, Lewis and Pumpkin, and purchase a $2 bag of food to feed the chickens, ducks, and turkeys.
New this year, the event will also include a vendor market featuring 10 local businesses including wellness services (with a booth offering information on Maggie’s Resource Centre of North Hastings), to jewellery makers, farmers, artisans, and more.
“The idea behind our farmstand is to help support small and local business and small makers,” Melissa says.
“It’s just a really good time of year to help support local business and it’s a great opportunity to do that with so many people coming through.”
Also new this year, Burke’s Barnyard has opened a costume exchange on the porch of the farmstand.
“I’ve seen a lot of people trying to get rid of Halloween costumes on (Facebook) Marketplace,” Melissa says. “I personally saved all of my kids’ costumes because every year, (because) you never know if they’ll want to use something again. It’s a really good way to make use of these little costumes while helping other people.”
The costume exchange is now open at the farm and will remain open until the Halloween event.
“People can come bring an old costume, switch it for something new, and donate old costumes they don’t want,” Melissa says. “If a family is low-income and just needs a costume, they’re welcome to come take one.”
Since the exchange launched earlier this month, visitors have been browsing the costumes and donating their own.
It’s not the only support the Burkes have received from the community for the Halloween event since they began hosting it annually. The event is run by volunteers and much of the chocolate and candy comes from donations by individuals in the community.
“Every year, we depend on local community donations and the vendors are now a good network to have,” Melissa says. “Sometimes we get donations for raffle prizes, and we’ll sell raffle tickets to buy more inflatables for the displays.”
“Between the community and neighbours, the small businesses and ourselves, it all comes together.”
For more information and to volunteer, visit the Facebook event page or email burkesbarnyard@gmail.com.
