Superman, better known by day as Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, passes out candy at the city’s Boo-Yah! Halloween drive-thru. Staff photo / Nathanael Hawthorne

YOUNGSTOWN — Door-to-door trick-or-treating in 2020 was a largely discussed topic in many Mahoning Valley communities.

A couple of cities, however, were able to keep people safe during the pandemic and also keep the Halloween tradition fun for children.

Youngstown, Warren and Girard, for example, opted for a drive-thru style trick-or-treat event where the residents and children drove through a line of different community organizations. These members and organizations then gave candy to the children through the car windows.

Youngstown had its event in the Covelli Centre parking lot with 32 vendors signed up for passing out treats.

“In leiu of traditional trick or treating, Mayor Jamael Tito Brown came to me and said, ‘as a team, we needed to come up with an alternate plan’,” Director of Parks and Recreation Dawn Turnage said. “Together, with the health department and ICU Blockwatch Group, we got together and created this project and called it Boo-Yah. This is an alternate way of having holiday fun for Halloween.”

Most of the vendors were more than happy to spend time passing out treats to children. Tracy Wilks of Carter-Wilks Cleaning Service said the event was good for the community.

“It’s a safe place for the community to come for a safe holiday,” Wilks said.

The event was scheduled to start at 4 p.m., but Turnage said cars started lining up at 12:30 p.m. Even at the start of the event, cars were lined up for about a mile along Front Street and the Market Street bridge. One woman got in line at 3:40 p.m. and said there already were about 30 cars in front of her. She left at 4:30 p.m. without getting any candy because she said the line was “taking forever” and she wanted to get back home for her neighborhood trick or treat event at 5 p.m.

“(The line) means our community is coming together. In the time we’re in now, seeing our community collaborate and come together means a lot,” Turnage said.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown credits the long line to the community wanting to take advantage of the opportunity and have some fun.

The vendors were asked to decorate their cars and look the part for the holiday. Almost all the different vehicles were decorated and there were prizes for the best dressed and best decorated vehicle.

Brown said it was nice to see the vendors get into the spirit. He even got into the spirit and donned a Superman costume. However he said there’s a little more significance to his outfit.

“Right now we need to be strong,” Brown said about his costume. “I had the costume and thought ‘what a great time to bring it back out’.”

nhawthorne@tribtoday.com