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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Sunday, October 28, 2001

Halloween galas remain fairly intact

By Karen Blakeman and Hugh Clark
Advertiser Staff Writers

With a few notable exceptions, Halloween celebrations in Hawai'i will go on as planned, despite terrorist attacks on the Mainland, bombings in Afghanistan, economic duress and widespread concern over anthrax in the mail.

Korey Helm, 4, of Hawai'i Kai, crafts a work of art on her Halloween bag yesterday at Meadow Gold's County Fair celebration at Kahala Mall. Despite recent events, many Halloween celebrations will proceed as planned.

Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser

"We're just letting things go on as normal," said Keith Fukumoto, adviser to the Leilehua High School Key Club. The club sponsors an annual haunted house at Wahiawa Town Center, and Fukumoto said the high-school students were looking forward to the event this year, as they have every year.

"They just enjoy doing it," he said.

More than 100 events, statewide, including haunted houses, trick-or-treating, costume contests, street fairs, and adult and children's parties are going on as planned. A handful have been canceled or revamped, including events at two of Hawai'i's largest shopping centers.

Ala Moana Center canceled its usual Halloween events, explaining in newspaper ads that managers thought it would be inappropriate to sponsor trick-or-treating and costume contests in light of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the East Coast.

The decision to cancel was made at the national level, according to executives for General Growth, the shopping center's management company, and affects Mainland shopping centers as well as Ala Moana and Prince Kuhio Place, the largest shopping center on the Big Island.

Another Big Island Halloween event, the Hilo Jaycees Haunted House near the downtown Kress store, was canceled because of a conflicting project, said president Walton Low.

Sea Life Park will downsize its usual Halloween extravaganza, limiting the event to regular business hours and changing the name from "Scream Life Park at Sea Life Park" to "Pepsi's Halloween House Party."

Staff members will be in costume, there will be awards for best costumes worn to the park and Halloween candy will be distributed, said Loreen Matsushima, a Sea Life Park spokeswoman.

But the effects of terrorism on the travel industry have hit hard, and the park doesn't have the money or staff to stage its usual big bash this year, Matsushima said.

"We're working leaner this year," she said, "and hoping for a better year in 2002."

Emi Tottori, marketing manager at Restaurant Row's Ocean Club, said national events helped shape the club's annual Halloween party this year, and the biggest newsmakers in those events will be incorporated into what she hopes will be a stress-relieving good time.

"Heroes and Princesses" will be the theme, she said. Firefighters, police and military members, as well as those who dress up like the real-life heroes, will get in for free. Party games will include "Bash the Bin Laden Pinata," foot wiping on a bin Laden doormat, and other bin Laden-bashing events.

Princesses were included in the theme for those who don't feel up to heroic roles, Tottori said.

"Those who prefer a softer feminine image can be princesses," she said. "I'm going as a princess. My boyfriend is going as a pea."