Dorri Partain
Managing Editor

As dusk approached, families filled the sidewalks along Gladstone Boulevard this Halloween for another successful year of trick-or-treating and memory-making.  As tubs of candy filled the treat sacks of little super heroes, princesses, and ghouls, the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association hosted their final Scare-It safe trick-or-treating event.

Earlier this year— after several months of debate and discussion — association members voted to make this year’s event a celebration of 30 years, and a finale for this event that Northeast youngsters have experienced for generations. 

The Northeast News searched our archives for a look back at the highlights of this event and those that have brought all the elements together, year after year.

1993- A Tradition Begins

Old Northeast, Inc. (ONE) was the founding organization for this event and selected Gladstone Boulevard, with Kansas City Museum’s Corinthian Hall and numerous historic mansions, as the setting for a car-free, trick or treating event. For numerous years, the event operated as Trick-or-Treat in Historic Northeast.

1998- 5th Annual 

Northeast News reported that despite the rainy weather, 170 volunteers made sure Halloween went on as usual. With an estimated 3000 trick-or-treaters, the News reported that “the really scary part was seeing how many folks will turn out in the pouring rain for free candy.”

2010- 17th Annual

When Scarritt Renaissance resident Amanda Stinger realized that no organization or person had planned any event for Halloween, she quickly gathered resources, volunteers and donations to keep it going, adding food trucks, bounce houses and slides, and fire spinners.

“The goal is to bring as many people from the Northeast in,” Stinger said during a 2010 interview  “We have a lot more free, fun, safe activities for the kids. We want to make it a really memorable activity for the kids.”

This event, with activities beyond trick-or-treating, was renamed “Scare-It Halloween”.

2017- 24th Annual

A scattering of snowflakes was a Scare-It first but it didn’t keep the Halloween spirits away as even then-Kansas City Mayor Sly James was spotted amongst the ghouls and goblins that night. The 24th annual event offered 135,00 pieces of candy —- 1300 pounds — to fill the treat bags of approximately 8000 kids. James told the Northeast News, “They’ve established a really cool tradition; they go full out with the decorations, the costumes and everything else.”

2020 and 2021- Covid Cancellations

Event organizers cancelled Scare-It for the next two Halloweens due to concerns that large events could spread the Covid-19 virus. The event would resume in 2022 as the 27th annual.

“It feels wonderful to give our neighbors, friends, family, and the city back an event that has spanned 27 years and two generations of participants,” said event director Dylan Van Gerpen in 2022. “We were devastated to stop a long-standing tradition and frankly struggled to do so with many people being accustomed to our event regardless of extenuating circumstances.”

2025- The Final Year

After making the difficult decision to host the final Scare-It, organizers set out to make it a real celebration to mark 30 years, upping the number of participating safe houses and amount of candy.

President of the Scarritt Renaissance Neighborhood Association (SRNA), Dylan Van Gerpen, stated prior to the event, ”This year has the most safe houses we have had since I took over, with 23 confirmed residents/houses participating. I also wanted to exceed our yearly goal of candy this year and while we didn’t reach the 500,000 pieces I was going for, we did make it to 450,000 (we usually do about 250,000 pieces each year).”

With 131 volunteers helping sort, deliver, and pass out candy and block off streets, SRNA also received assistance from Neighborhood Tourism Development Fund, Kansas City Parks & Rec, The Museum of Kansas City, Independence Avenue CID, and the Northeast Chamber of Commerce.

The evening of the event, trick-or-treaters lined the streets, waiting for their last chance to enjoy Scare-It.  At the Museum of Kansas City, ghostly figures wandered the yard of Corinthian Hall, while across the street home owners Jeff Linville and Jeff Zumsteg turned their 1902 mansion, the stately Steven’s House, into a scene straight out of the 1985 feature film, Back to the Future.

With Linville dressed as Marty McFly and Zumsteg as Dr. Emmett Brown, trick-or-treaters filed past a DeLorean to view the scene and collect their treats.

As volunteers made final touches to the scene, Linville offered, “It’s a little sad that it’s the final year but it met its original intent. It was started 30 years ago to give kids a safe place to trick-or-treat when the neighborhood was a little rougher. But things have changed in the neighborhood- I think it’s a good thing to spread the wealth (of funding) out and let other people enjoy the trick-or-treaters. It’s sad but everything comes to an end.”

As the last pieces of candy were passed out and tired trick-or-treaters and their parents headed back to their cars, Scare-It Halloween volunteers reopened streets and took down decorations- but that doesn’t mean they may not ever host a Halloween event again.

Van Gerpen, who has coordinated Scare-It off and on six times in the past 11 years, offered that a smaller event could be hosted in 2026.

“As far as what is ahead,”  stated van Gerpen, “we have already been discussing doing a family fall festival type setup, maybe in partnership with the Museum, so we can still keep a family-friendly event in Scarritt. The neighborhood association has also briefly thrown around the idea of moving (events) to Concourse Park as an option. Nothing has been decided as of yet.”

Ghostly figures roaming the front lawn have been a popular element during Scare-It in recent years. The Museum of Kansas City has been involved in this event since the first year in 1993.

Lots of creative costumes were spotted during this three-hour event. This family honored fall with squirrel and nut costumes, stating they have been participating in this event for the last three years but this year their baby squirrel was more interested in all the trees along the boulevard than the offered candy.