Halloween event also disappointed some merchants

Renate Maxwell and Ursula Walters
Published: November 27, 2008

This letter is in response to the one from Melissa Hyatt published in the Star-Exponent Nov. 9 (“Disappointed by Halloween at Depot.”)

We are merchants on Davis Street who have shared with children many Halloween nights, thoroughly enjoying ourselves as we watched the hundreds of children from Culpeper in their variety of costumes receiving their treats.

Over the years, we have actually looked forward to dressing up ourselves and handing out candy.

Many children have come back to tell us how much they enjoyed trying to outsmart us by their disguises and us not being able to recognize who had “taken over” Bobby or Betty’s body for the night.

We want to inform you, Ms. Hyatt, all of the residents of Culpeper and, more importantly, the children, that several of the merchants did not want to do things the way they were done this Halloween.

Unfortunately, we did not attend the meeting where this was decided and therefore we were also very disappointed by the way it turned out.

The basic idea was, perhaps, OK and we could have chosen to pass out treats, but we felt we would have taken away from the impact that was expected — but did not occur — at the Depot.

We also feel that we must ask all the disappointed children to try and imagine the effort that Culpeper Renaissance put into this event.

You can be assured that we do care and it will be better next year.

Renate Maxwell and Ursula Walters
Nuway Image Salon
Culpeper