MAINE, USA — Halloween amid the COVID-19 pandemic will certainly look different, but that's not stopping two Maine police departments from ensuring children in their community get candy.
Both Hallowell and North Berwick Police Departments plan to deliver candy to family's homes in their community on Halloween day to help spread some cheer on the spookiest day of the year,
"We came up with idea to bring Halloween to them because it's going to be an awkward trick-or-treating scenario," North Berwick Police Lieutenant Dan Pelkey said. "We're going to put little goodie bags together that we can just hand to the kids. So we're going to practice social distancing as best we can while still giving them that feeling of Halloween."
Both departments are currently collecting candy to be donated for 'reverse trick-or-treating'. North Berwick is accepting donations from community members who reach out, and have community funds set aside to purchase candy.
Hallowell is accepting individually wrapped candy donations as well, and will be collecting donations on Thursday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p..m.
"Just trying to make it a little more tolerable and having a little bit of fun on our side, and hopefully a lot of fun on the kid's side," Hallowell Police Chief Scott MacMaster said.
For families in Hallowell looking to sign up to have candy delivered, the police department says it plans to post sign ups to its Facebook page later in the week.
North Berwick residents looking to take part can send a Facebook message to the police department, or call the department's non-emergency line at 207-676-2751.
"There's always an opportunity to make different memories. New memories are now a bad thing," MacMaster said.
Hallowell officers plan to make their deliveries between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Saturday, while North Berwick plans to make their routes in the morning.
"We thought, let's kind of get that anticipation like Christmas morning. Let's have the kids get up, put their costumes on and look out the window and get ready," Pelkey said.
These two departments didn't coordinate their similar plans together however, but as they both have the same idea, a friendly rivalry has formed.
After learning of the other departments candy delivery plans, the Hallowell Police Department took to Facebook to challenge the North Berwick officers to a costume contest.
Officers from both departments will be in costume while out delivering candy, and plan to pose for photos with families along the route.