Thanks to the community for supporting HallowFest

A large crowd gathered around the stage, where costume contests and performances were held at Menifee HallowFest. Menifee 24/7 photos: Doug Spoon

A letter to our readers
By Doug Spoon, Editor

My friends in Menifee:

My wife Kristen and I would like to publicly thank the thousands of people who came out to Wheatfield Park on Saturday for the Menifee 24/7 "Truck or Treat" HallowFest, presented by RE/MAX Diamond.

For two months, we have worked on this festival in an attempt to make it the kind of family event that best serves the people of Menifee. In addition to our obligation to provide fair and balanced news coverage of the city, we are committed to creating opportunities for families to have fun and meet each other in a safe, friendly environment.

Our annual Halloween event is our most ambition project in that regard.

Four years ago, we created and ran this event all on our own, with about six volunteer staff, a small borrowed speaker, limited lighting, less than a dozen vendors and the only food being served from the Little League snack bar. When nearly 1,000 people showed up, we knew we had something. The next year, we added a few more vendors, had better lighting and the crowd increased to 2,500. We thought maybe this event was outgrowing us.

Last year, we partnered with the City of Menifee in a Fall Festival that was moved to Audie Murphy Ranch Sports Park. A crowd estimated at more than 5,000 attended. Local business vendors were starting to catch on to the idea, and we finally had more food options.

This year, we decided to strike out on our own again because of some differences with the city on how the event should be run. We found an amazing partner and presenting sponsor in Cynthia Nemelka of RE/MAX Diamond. Back at Wheatfield Park, we got incredible support from the staff of Valley-Wide Recreation and Park District. We chose not to serve alcohol, simplified the costume contests, added 12 food trucks, added bounce houses and brought in a professional DJ and live band.

Wheatfield Park is much larger than Audie Murphy Ranch Sports Park, allowing us to spread out the event into different zones. That perhaps makes the crowd look smaller, but we got several positive comments from people who liked being able to walk around to the various areas.

If you were there, you saw the result. We had our biggest crowd yet, estimated at 8,000. Our business and non-profit booths ran out of candy for trick or treaters halfway through the event and had to send out for more. Many of the local businesses selling items told us they had their biggest sales ever in such an event. And we got a lot of praise for bringing in all the food trucks with such a wide variety of food.

We have so many people to thank, including:

-- Cynthia Nemelka and RE/MAX Diamond realty. Cynthia made this possible with her financial contributions, offer of office help, great organizational skills and her creativity. It was her idea to re-brand the event as "HallowFest" and bring in the food trucks. We are very grateful for our partnership with her.

-- Vince Valdez and the staff of Valley-Wide at Wheatfield Park. Vince helped us with anything we asked, moved baseball schedules around for us, hauled porta potties and light standards around, and gave us valuable advice.

-- The cadets of the NJROTC unit at Paloma Valley High School. Nearly 150 of them reported for duty and were incredibly respectful, disciplined and organized. They set up chairs and tables, monitored the bounce houses, helped direct traffic and did anything that was asked of them with a great attitude. We couldn't have done it without them.

-- Jason Cova, the DJ. He was professional, kept the program moving, played great Halloween music and carried us on the sound system while the stage sound was down.

-- The food truck vendors who served such varied and great food choices. We heard many compliments about their food.

-- Bill Ferrise of ARCO/Archibald's. He sponsored eight porta potties -- twice as many as we've ever had -- and wash stations.

-- Crime Watch volunteers. Their help in security and traffic control was invaluable.

-- Neighbors of the park who put up with our parking situation and the noise.

-- The local businesses, non-profits and politicians who set up booths to greet adults and children, provide games and pass out candy.

-- All the youth groups and performers who made the night so special, including the youth band Burnout and the band Eclipse. We enjoyed having the Romoland Tiger Dance Group, Starlight Singers, Ohana Club Paloma Polynesian dancers, Mr. Porkpie, and Diana's Dance Company. We believe that by involving the community as volunteers and performers, we create a great sense of community and help the young people build confidence.

-- All of our wonderful sponsors, who provided financial support, equipment and service. They include Waste Management, Temecula Valley Toyota, Lennar Homes, Remnet Entertainment and Fun House Escape, Anthology Church, E-Z Jumpers, All 4 Fun Jumpers, Ghoul on a Stool, justserve.org, Paloma Valley High School music department, Summit Equipment Rentals, Hello Menifee, Menifee Property Management, and Gabe the House Guy.

-- All of you. It was so great seeing the happy young faces of the children who enjoyed the games, trick or treating and costume contests. The parents obviously put in much time and effort to create costumes and encourage their children to get on the stage. There was a strong sense of community and pride, with the emphasis on families.

We hope you also enjoyed the Facebook Live broadcasts we featured during the event. We will have a highlights video on Monday. If you have any photos or video you would like to share with us, please do. We will give you credit if we publish them.

Thanks again and Happy Halloween!

Cynthia Nemelka of RE/MAX Diamond, wearing a costume as well, talks to winners of one of the costume contests.