Elgin funeral home to host trunk-or-treat Saturday

To some people, a funeral home may seem like an odd place to have a Halloween event. And to others, it may seem eerily right.

But to Joy Symonds of Symonds-Madison Funeral Home, it's just a way to be part of the community.

The Elgin family-owned business will host their 3rd annual trunk-or-treat in their parking lot Saturday.

"I think this fits with us wanting to be good citizens and good neighbors," she said. "What we do for people is important, and you can't make light of that," said Symonds, who owns the business with her husband Dan. "But on the flip side, we definitely want people to have some positive memories associated with us and our industry because it's not always just sadness that happens here."

Local businesses, community groups and families will decorate the trunks of their cars in the parking lot of the funeral home at 305 Park St. from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. and pass out candy to the trunk-or-treaters. There will also be games, fall treats, a picture station to take family photos and a contest for best-decorated trunk.

After having several hundred people attend the last couple of years, the Symonds made some adjustments to how the event will work during the pandemic.

"It's not going to be the ideal way we'd like it, but we have kids and we're friends with lots of other young families and we thought it would be a shame to abandon it, especially since there's just not a lot happening," she said.

Tickets are $5 per person and can be purchased online at https://symondsmadison.ticketleap.com/trunkortreat/. Proceeds go to the Nationwide Chaplains Veterans Fund to underwrite funeral costs for local veterans in need, a cause in which they've been very active. Some tickets are still available and can only be bought in advance. They're sold in time blocks to help keep the number of attendees to no more than 50 at a time. Masks and social distancing are required.