Ridgewood NJ, Last night on Halloween the Ridgewood Police Handed out Halloween Safety Treats. In addition to their patrol duties.
Officers were handing out safety glow sticks to young Trick or Treaters for Halloween . Above Officer Mark Butler helps these young ladies accessorize their costumes.
Halloween Safety Tips from The Chief John M. Ward
!0/27/13
With a little luck we should have decent weather for Halloween this year. As our children take to the streets on Halloween to trick-or-treat, I would like to remind everyone of a few safety tips to ensure that the treats are plentiful and tricks fun and safe.
To help ensure that this Halloween is fun and safe the Ridgewood Police Department will be deploying extra officers on both October 30th and Halloween.
Additionally we secured glow sticks and (AAA) Halloween bags which will be available to the public. (glow sticks and bags will be available at our police desk)
Here are some tips for helping keep young ones safe on Halloween:
Motorists -The National Highway Safety Administration and The CDC list Halloween as one of the top days for pedestrian involved accidents especially children. Because excited trick-or-treaters often forget about safety, motorists and parents must be even more alert. While the festivities may start earlier in the day, the most popular trick-or-treating hours are 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. so be especially alert for kids during those hours.
•Slow down in residential neighborhoods and obey all traffic signs and signals.
•Drive at least 5 mph below the posted speed limit to give yourself extra time to react to children who may dart into the street.
•Watch for children walking on roadways, medians and curbs. In dark costumes, they’ll be harder to see at night.
•Look for children crossing the street. They may not be paying attention to traffic and cross the street mid-block or between parked cars.
•Carefully enter and exit driveways and alleys.
•Turn on your headlights to make yourself more visible – even in the daylight.
• Eliminate any distractions inside your car so you can concentrate on the road and your surroundings
•Broaden your scanning by looking for children left and right into yards and front porches.
Parents
•Ensure an adult or older, responsible youth is available to supervise children under age 12.
•Plan and discuss the route your trick-or-treaters will follow.
•Instruct children to travel only in familiar areas and along established routes.
•Teach children to stop only at well-lit houses and to never to enter a stranger’s home or garage.
•Establish a time for children to return home.
•Tell children not to eat any treats until they get home.
•Review trick-or-treating safety precautions, including pedestrian and traffic safety rules.
•Make sure Halloween costumes are flame-retardant and visible with retro-reflective material.
Trick-or-Treaters
•Be bright at night – Carry a glow stick and wear retro-reflective tape on costumes and treat buckets to improve visibility to motorists and others.
•Wear disguises that don’t obstruct vision, and avoid facemasks. Instead, use nontoxic face paint.
•When selecting a costume, make sure it is the right size to prevent trips and falls.
•Ensure any props are flexible and blunt-tipped to avoid injury from tripping or horseplay.
•Walking Safety
Carry a flashlight containing fresh batteries, and place it face down in the treat bucket to free up one hand. Never shine it into the eyes of oncoming drivers.
•Stay on sidewalks and avoid walking in streets if possible.
•If there are no sidewalks, walk on the left side of the road, facing traffic.
•Look ALL ways and listen for traffic before crossing the street and keep looking as you cross.
•Cross streets only at the corner, using traffic signals and crosswalks. and never cross between parked vehicles or mid-block.
•Put electronic devices down and keep heads up and walk, don’t run, across the street.
•Teach children to make eye contact with drivers before crossing in front of them. (Remember STOP LOOK & WAVE)
•Always walk on sidewalks or paths. If there are no sidewalks, walk facing traffic as far to
the left as possible.
Children should walk on direct routes with the fewest street crossings.
•Watch for cars that are turning or backing up. Teach children to never dart out into the street or cross between parked cars.
•Tell your parents where you are going.
We thank you for your cooperation and wish everyone a Happy and Safe Halloween
Stage Fright: An Original Halloween Musical
Sat, October 26, 2013
Time: 1:30 PM
Porch Light Productions, 555 Broad Street, Glen Rock
Stage Fright, nominated in 2010 for Best Original Musical by the New Jersey Association of Community Theatres, is a charming comedy about a naive group of trick-or-treaters that come upon the house of a witch and her gang of monsters on Halloween night. After being kidnapped by the wicked Old Lady Fargus and her evil cronies – the Vampire, Medusa, Mummy, Headless Horseman, Werewolf, Igor, Frankenstein and some landscaping zombies – the teens attempt to win over the monsters in the hopes of saving themselves and their friends from a twisted fate!
WEATHER ALERT : Secure all Halloween Decorations and Garden Gnomes
October 29,212
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, Ridgewood Police announce due to the potential severe impact of the impending storm you are hereby advised that solid waste and recycling services will be suspended on Monday, Tuesday and Wednseday of this week.
The recycling center will be open to residents should you need to dispose of solid waste or recyclables that cannot be held. The normal pick up schedule will resume on Thursday.
Please remember that in no case will branches be allowed to be placed in the street. It is also requested that you withhold any reports of property damage normally made to law enforcement staff until after the storm has passed. Please continue to check the Village website for further updates.
The Ridgewood police also remind everyone to secure outdoor furniture and other loose objects .
Alice Gainer from News 12 New Jersey , reminds us , “This may seem obvious….but I’ve still seen em out…bring in your Halloween decorations…. or any lawn decorations for that matter…you know those garden gnomes or whatever people are into. Last thing anyone needs is to be knocked unconscious by a flying gnome while out in a storm. (Also- don’t go out in the storm) “
Video Tour the Stewart Family’s Backyard Halloween Maze
October 27,2012
Ridgewood NJ , In the spirit of Halloween, SPACEStv toured The World’s Only Life-Size “Loops and Traps” Halloween Maze located in the Stewart family’s backyard in Ridgewood, NJ. The maze – which takes up the Stewart’s entire backyard – has become an annual family tradition for the past 18 years attracting over 1000 people every Halloween season.
In this exclusive tour, viewers get an insider’s look into how this 1,500-sq-ft maze is constructed and how the Stewarts are able to scare the pants off the children of New York and New Jersey every season! This year’s maze features a zombie clown, snakes hanging from the ceiling, and real hands popping out of nowhere as you try make it out alive. It can take the average person up to 50 minutes to find their way out!
October 27 & 28, 2012
Mr. Halloweenster Giveaway
The first 125 customers each day will receive a copy of Mr. Halloweenster with their purchase. Come early to secure your copy of the book.
October 28, 2012 at 12:00-3:00 pm
Decorate a Pumpkin!
$10 for a Sugar Pie pumpkin and time at the craft station to decorate.
(all ages)
Make sure to check-in at the register for a special decorating token for access to the crafts table.
*All events are subject to cancelation due to weather. Check our Twitter feed @NJ_PumpkinPatch to see if the conditions call for a postponement or cancelation.
Check back often to see if we have created additional events for the month of October! See you at Ward’s Pumpkin Patch.
552 Route 17 North
Ridgewood, NJ 07450
(off the highway)
Ridgewood NJ , Since 1940, the Ward family has operated Ward’s Pumpkin Patch in Ridgewood, New Jersey. They offer the best quality and selection of pumpkins, gourds, and squash in Northern New Jersey. They have pumpkins to make common Jack-O-Lanterns as well as giant pumpkins, tiny munchkins, and gourds in unusual shapes.
Ward’s Pumpkin Patch offers mums, cornstalks, haystacks and Indian corn as well as a rotating selection of fall decorations. One of the most popular, and best-selling items, is our painted pumpkins featuring cartoons, sports, and Halloween themes. And on weekends leading up to Halloween Wards offers goat feedings, and other events, read more below about this year’s calendar. So bring your entire family for a fall outing at Ward’s Pumpkin Patch!
“Over the generations you have seen many of the Ward family members working to bring you the best haystacks, corn stalks and pumpkins.One of the greatest joys for us is working with our family and seeing our neighbors come to the patch year after year.We love Ridgewood, and we love pumpkins!
So come on down to the patch to talk with Janet about the best types of pumpkins for cooking, ask Pete about the season’s varieties, see Dave waving to customers in his latest Halloween costume, ride along with Jeff, see Ashleigh painting pumpkins, or have your purchase assisted by Courtney, Devon and Sydney.It is a family enterprise and we all get involved!”
Hours: Open every day in October from 10am to sunset.
Events: This year we are debuting a brand new barrel ride. Hop aboard for a ride around the property! Rides take off periodically throughout the day and they are FREE!
We will be offering special events on the last two Sundays in October. Check our Calendar to see this season’s fall schedule for full descriptions. Oct. 21 at 2:00-2:30 pm – Story Time at Ward’s Farm & Meet a Scarecrow Oct. 28 at 12:00-3:00 pm – Decorate a Pumpkin!
As a parent with a child in school, I got the ‘nanny state’ call from Dr. Fishbein saying not to let my children out to trick-or-treat yesterday because of down power lines and branches. So, if there is a windstorm that takes down a line or branch and Dr. Fishbein fails to send out an email or warning call, is he and/or the school district liable should my child get injured on the way to school (or any other destination)? After 20 years in Ridgewood, I know when and when not to venture out following a storm. I wonder if the BOE is happy with his new job description?
Halloween (or Hallowe’en), a contraction of All-Hallows-Eve (“evening”), is an annual holiday observed on October 31, and common activities include guising/trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, and watching horror films.
Straddling the line between fall and winter, plenty and paucity, life and death, Halloween is a time of celebration and superstition. It is thought to have originated with the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, when people would light bonfires and wear costumes to ward off roaming ghosts. In the eighth century, Pope Gregory III designated November 1 as a time to honor all saints and martyrs; the holiday, All Saints’ Day, incorporated some of the traditions of Samhain. The evening before was known as All Hallows’ Eve and later Halloween. Over time, Halloween evolved into a secular, community-based event characterized by child-friendly activities such as trick-or-treating. In a number of countries around the world, as the days grow shorter and the nights get colder, people continue to usher in the winter season with gatherings, costumes and sweet treats.
Includes free ballroom dance lesson and prize for best costume.
All are invited to enjoy an evening of ballroom dancing and refreshments at the annual Ridgewood YMCA Halloween Masquerade Ball on Saturday, October 29 from 5:00pm-7:30pm at the Ridgewood YMCA.
Single and couples are welcome at the event, which will begin with a free, half hour ballroom dance lesson with Dance Master Lestat. The evening will continue with dancing and refreshments from 5:30pm-7:30pm. Prizes will also be awarded for the best costume, although wearing of costumes is optional.
Tickets are $15 per person or $25 per couple and include a 20% discount coupon for dinner, valid October 30 at The Office and Smith Brothers restaurants and October 31-November 3 at Marcello’s and The Stable restaurants.
To purchase tickets, please contact Carol Livingstone at 201.444.5600, ext 330 or email clivingstone@ridgewoodyca.org