No more was the pandemic going to hold back what LINC and its communities yearned to give and share.

The fall weather came cool and clear, and LINC’s annual Lights On Afterschool events went outside to find a rush of parents, teachers and children ready to join the fun.

“It was like a waterfall,” LINC Caring Communities Site Coordinator John Herrera said of the response when he asked for volunteers to help a drive-through trunk or treat at Boone Elementary in the Center School District.

“People were saying, ‘Yes! Yes! Yes!”

No doubt the separation during Covid-19 has everyone aching to get together again, and the safely-spaced, masked, outdoor drive-through party at Center’s Indian Creek Elementary School also felt the joy — complete with a raucous Halloween soundtrack.

“There definitely was some great energy,” said Carl Wade, LINC’s site coordinator at Indian Creek. “We had the youth out there dancing, moving and grooving. It felt good all the way around.”

Several of the Lights On events gave LINC a chance to share free books for every child who passed through, plus family resource information — and of course treats for the children, many of them dressed in their Halloween costumes for the ride.

The support LINC received from Indian Creek’s administration and staff — some of whom joined in the curbside celebration — was invigorating, Wade said.

Boone’s staff and parents came out as well to add to the line of decorated cars and booty of treats, said Herrera.

“The kids were just tickled,” he said. “Everybody’s been so overwhelmed . . . We could reach out to parents to say, ‘Hey, what can we do to help?’ and make everyone feel welcome and happy. That was it — happy.”

For some LINC sites, their school parking lots weren’t available, but that just called for some creativity.

The Faxon Elementary School team, with donated and purchased treats and books to give out, took its show on the road, said LINC’s site coordinator Yolanda Robinson, and turned trunk and treat into a door-to-door visit to LINC’s families.

They took safety precautions. Robinson called ahead and the parents and the children stepped outside for the mini-reunions.

“I had a great day to be able to see students’ eyes light up,” Robinson said. It had been so many months that it was surprising to see how the children had grown. She stood shoulder-to-shoulder with some, laughing at how they were almost as tall as her.

“It gave me a glimpse of what we’ve all been missing — our relationships with our families,” Robinson said. “It brings a great feeling to my heart that there’s still hope, and there are still ways to be creative and innovative in this time of social distancing.”

When LINC’s Lights On event plans at Border Star Elementary in Kansas City had to find an off-campus site, Site Coordinator Shelley Taylor-Doran called on neighboring St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, which lent a parking lot.

And LINC, in partnership with Border Star’s PTA, set up a volunteer line of parents and teachers to treat and entertain the more than 200 children in some 100 cars that came through.

“I’m used to being around 200 to 300 people a day,” Taylor-Doran said, remembering what it was like to be in a full school building. The teachers who helped — and the Border Star families — like LINC’s site coordinator “are missing that,” she said.

It was, she said, “a beautiful day” for “a reunion.”

By Joe Robertson/LINC Writer