After weeks of violence on St. Paul’s East Side, area children and parents have been invited to take a respite Saturday afternoon with a bouncy castle, a climbing wall and several police officers.
Although the St. Paul Police Department and Safe Summer Nights have organized more than 30 events over the past few years, the party Saturday at Arlington Hills Community Center will be the first Halloween version of the community-outreach parties.
Since the event falls on Oct. 31, there will be lots of candy: more than 300 pounds of jumbo-size Butterfingers, Twix and Baby Ruth bars will be on hand.
“We planned it in early September, but as in turns out, the timing couldn’t have been any better,” said Bob Stupka, president of St. Paul-based Davanni’s Pizza & Hot Hoagies. Davanni’s will supply 130 pizzas for Saturday’s event.
“It’s not rocket science,” Stupka said. “We go to these parks; we go to Arlington Hills on Saturday. Give food, give out candy … have neighbors talking to neighbors, and have neighbors talking to officers.”
Laureen Chapman and her son Jaiden, 2, will be at the event Saturday, Chapman said. But they won’t stay long. After the event, they’ll trick-or-treat closer to home in St. Paul’s Battle Creek neighborhood because of the East Side’s violent past few weeks, she said.
More than 1,000 people are expected to attend the event.
Tom Campion, a partner at St. Paul-based Superb Meats of Minnesota, who picked up the candy last week, proposed the idea of Safe Summer Nights events two years ago.
What began as a way to get cops and citizens together has “grown from a small neighborhood barbecue to a production,” said Steve Anderson, investigative commander for the St. Paul police Eastern District.
At the Halloween pizza party, police will be showing the BearCat, a tactical armed vehicle, the mobile command center and a bomb squad robot as well as police animals and squad vehicles.
The event’s emphasis is police-community relations.
“They get to see them in a normal setting,” Anderson said of the citizens and police officers. “Not some crisis.”
Barry Lytton can be reached at 651-228-5453.
IF YOU GO
What: St. Paul Police Department/Safe Summer Nights Halloween party
Where: Arlington Hills Community Center, 1200 Payne Ave., St. Paul
When: 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday
