Children will discover a couple of tricks, plenty of treats and a ton of fun inside the wooded confines of T.K. Lawless Park Saturday afternoon, as the Cass County Parks Department and 4-H Youth Program join forces to present the largest Harvest Fest yet.

The annual event will take place from 2 to 5 p.m. at the county park, located at 15122 Monkey Run St. in Vandalia. Admission for the event costs $1 or a donation of a single canned food item per person.

On top of the array of outdoor activities that visitors to the annual festival have come to expect, new to this year’s Harvest Fest is a “trunk-or–treating” hour, sponsored by the county 4-H office. Children will have a chance to collect candy from vehicle trunks manned by members of local businesses and organizations from 3 to 4 p.m.

This year marks the first time that members of the county parks department and 4-H have collaborated to organize the annual autumn event, which has been a tradition at Lawless for around 20 years, said Parks Department Director Scott Wyman.

“It serves as another way to get folks out to the parks, to enjoy the beautiful fall colors we are blessed with around southwest Michigan,” Wyman said about the event. “Whether we get 100 or 1,000 people out to the park, that is what we are about, getting people to enjoy the outdoors.”

For the last four years, the Cass County 4-H program has organized its trunk or treat event separate from the Harvest Fest at the Cass County Fairgrounds, attracting anywhere from 800 to 1,200 children, said Patty Dohm, an employee with the county MSU Extension office. Organizers with the trunk or treat wanted to incorporate more activities at their event and organizers with the Harvest Fest to boost attendance to theirs, the two entities decided to combine their efforts.

“We [the parks department and 4-H] are both housed in the same suite at the county annex, and I work for both offices, so it was kind of an easy marriage between the two,” Dohm said.

Around 20 businesses and organizations have signed up to participate in the trunk or treat event, with each entity fielding a decorated car trunk that children can grab candy from. The event provides an alternative to the traditional trick-or-treat experience, Dohm said.

“It provides a safer environment than going to door-to-door, when you do not know who is passing out candy,” she said. “The people who are participating in the trunk or treat are all reputable people from the community and the event takes place in one safe,
convenient space.”

In addition to the trunk or treat, a wide range of activities will take place during the event, from tractor or horse hayrides around the park grounds to rides on an inflatable slide and zip line.

“It is going to be a jam packed three hours,” Wyman said. “Visitors will have a hard time getting everything in.”

For more information about the event, people can contact the MSUE office at (269) 445-4438. People wanting to volunteer or serve candy at the trunk or treat are also encouraged to contact the office to sign up.