Over 2,000 residents attended the Children’s Safety Village of Brant’s annual Hallowe’en at the Village event on Saturday, October 25, 2025.
Families of all ages filled the miniature town, trick-or-treating from station to station in costumes of every kind. From spooky clowns to superheroes, gaming characters and little aviators, the youngsters proudly showed off their creative ensembles to those in attendance.
Vivian Kariuki, administrative coordinator for Children’s Safety Village of Brant, said that while the event is all about having fun and collecting candy, it also doubles as a way to promote safety awareness.
“We invite several vendors to come to the Village and hand out candy, but we also ask them to spread some sort of children’s safety awareness piece as well,” she explained. “For example, at our own booth, we’re handing out candies with little stickers on them. The idea is that once the kids finish trick-or-treating, they can come inside to our candy-sorting station, where they and their parents have to sort through and try to spot the candy that has stickers. It’s just a little reminder that you always have to check your candy after trick-or-treating.”
Other vendors, like Brantford Fire Services, were handing out reflective bags to help increase the visibility of children when they’re out on Halloween night.
“Our big thing is trying to spread safety awareness, especially when it comes to kids, in any way we can,” continued Kariuki. “So to do that alongside our vendors and our sponsors like GrandBridge Energy, RBC Brantford, Dickson Wynperle Associates and the Kiwanis Club of Brantford, is something we really appreciate because it takes a village to help keep the community as safe as possible.”
After filling their bags up with all sorts of goodies, climbing around the outdoor playground equipment, or exploring an open school bus, many families headed inside to continue the fun.
“Of course we have the candy-sorting station, but we also have movies, free popcorn and colouring pages with safety tips that they can enjoy too,” said Kariuki.
Joanna Brant, who attended the event alongside her two grandchildren, said she thought the event was great.
“I think it’s brilliant. It’s so nice to be able to see the kids just enjoying themselves and not having a lot of limitations put in place because they’ve created this nice, safe environment for them, so there’s no traffic to worry about,” she said. “There’s also a lot of wonderful vendors here engaging with the children and I really appreciate that there’s this shared theme of safety. And obviously, there’s practically unlimited candy, so for the kids, what could be better than that?”
Brant said that her three-year-old grandson particularly enjoyed getting to explore the school bus.
“He’s obsessed with school buses,” she said with a laugh. “He lives about a block from the kindergarten he’s going to be going to and so it’s likely he won’t ever get to ride the bus when he’s this young, so the fact he got to explore it and try out all the different seats was just so sweet.”
Kariuki went on to say the event was an overall success.
We’re grateful for the wonderful weather, grateful for everyone who came out, all the volunteers and for the vendors as well,” she said. They’re doing their best to help the community, which we truly appreciate because children safety starts with all of us.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
