Eila Bolling gave some candy to this Paw Patrol officer.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

Young and old, wizards and unicorns, and a whole lot of candy.

Residents at the Pine Grove Care Centre in Kamloops welcomed Halloween a little early with a festive party.

“We normally did it on Halloween but then it impacted the kids getting out to trick or treating,” says Wendy Romanowski, recreation manager at the facility. Romanski says that although they have shifted the party to one day earlier, the residents will be in costume on Halloween night awaiting any trick or treaters who come by.

The kids got to enjoy juice, hotdogs and candy with the residents.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

“We’re festive, we’ve got the seating area done and then on Halloween all the residents will be dressed up,” Romanowski says. “We have a lot of fun.”

Romanski says the residents will be in the main dining room of the facility for Halloween night and will await trick or treaters with big bowls of candy.

“We get children from three years old right up to 14,” Romanowski says. “If they come in early in the evening, the residents would all be in the dining room and they could mingle.. We’ll get the residents really into it.”

School friends Anika, left, and Jasmira attended Pine Grove's Halloween party for the first time this year.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

One of the residents who partook in the Halloween festivities is Eila Bolling, who has been living in Pine Grove for four months.

“Well let’s put it this way, I was brought up in England, came out here when I was 29 and we never had such a thing as Halloween in England, it was called Guy Fawkes day...it was very different.”

Now, Bolling and her friends handed out bags of candy to tiny princesses, police officers, and wizards. Although she enjoys the candy, her favourite part of Halloween is the tricks.

“If I can get up to a little mischief, it’ll be good,” Bolling says. “Mischief is my middle name.”

Recreation manager Wendy Romanowski says many of the residents enjoy the Halloween activity because it reminds them of their own children.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

This year's event brought in more kids than usual, according to Romanowski. She says they usually only had about ten children come for their pre-Halloween party, but this year saw nearly double, which Romanowski was happy to see.

“What we’re trying to do is connect with the community,” Romanowski says. ”It’s bringing joy and sharing kindness.”

Trick or treaters are welcomed to stop by Pine Grove Care Care at 313 McGowan Avenue in the early evening.

Children went around to the seniors and recieved goody bags from each of them.

(JENNA WHEELER / iNFOnews.ca)

-This story was updated Nov. 2 at 10:30 a.m. to correct a typo.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Jenna Wheeler or call (250) 819-6089 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2019