Recently reappointed as mayor of the RM of Ritchot, Chris Ewen is getting ready to host his inaugural Scare with the Mayor in Île-des-Chênes.
The event will take place on Halloween night from 5:00–8:00 p.m. at the TransCanada Centre. The community, which didn’t have any block parties on Neighbour Day in September, will be the first to take part in this free family event. Funded by Ewen, the municipality, as well as donations from TransCanada, Scare with the Mayor is intended to add a lot of family fun to Halloween night.
“I don’t want to say too much, because we do have a couple of surprises,” says Ewen. “I will say that there will be hot chocolate and coffee for the adults, as well as nut-free candy for the kids.”
Ewen, who plans to do a blitz of the neighbourhood to hand out flyers, as well as have members of council hand out flyers at their homes and encourage trick or treaters to attend the event, says that they are hoping to see up to 400 kids come out that evening.
Though the mayor is keen to keep the details a surprise, he teases that there will be a spooky graveyard en route to haunted castle chambers.
Ewen says he is eager to spend as much time with people in the community as possible in the hopes that it will encourage a community mindset throughout the entire municipality.
“I like to bring people together for fun things,” he says. “Having a relationship with our community, as councillors and mayor, it creates a blossoming and sustainable municipality. I want to create somewhere that people are proud to be part of. I don’t want them to say ‘I live in St. Adolphe.’ I want them to say, ‘I live in Ritchot.’”
