Goblin Gathering, National Night Out Join Forces for a Friday Night of Family Fun

MANATEE COUNTY – BOO! Manatee’s 10th annual Goblin Gathering holds an extra surprise for families this year.

This year’s Goblin Gathering has been paired with another popular event, National Night Out, to bring Manatee families a double dose of fun and information. The Goblin Gathering and National Night Out will be held Friday, Oct. 19 from 6:30-9:30 p.m. at G.T. Bray Park, 5502 33rd Ave. Dr. West.

Kids and families will have their usual choice of fun stuff at the Goblin Gathering: a costume contest, face painting, a hayride, bounce houses and an 18-foot inflatable slide. Admission is $5 for the bounce house, hay ride and face painting. Concessions will be available for purchase. There will be costume contests in four age categories (ages 4 and under; 5 to 8; 9 to 12; and 13 and older) and one family category.

There also will be plenty of family and neighborhood safety tips available as part of National Night Out.

“We decided to host National Night out in conjunction with the Goblin Gathering to give neighbors a chance to get out and meet each other,” said Sherry Weydert, Manatee Neighborhood Services specialist. “We’ll give out crime prevention information and we just want to give people a chance to have fun and enjoy being out during the evening meeting other neighborhood folks.”

Manatee County public libraries are also hosting National Night Out events on Oct. 19. Braden River Library at 5 p.m. will present Escape School on how to avoid fear, common abductors’ lures and escape techniques; Palmetto Library at 6 p.m. will host a crime prevention discussion by Palmetto Police Department Lt. Scott Tyler. Rocky Bluff Library on Sat. Oct. 20 at 10:30 a.m. will host a show of comedy, magic and Halloween safety tips.

Several other National Night Out events will also take place in Pride Park on Oct. 19. Manatee County Housing Authority and Manatee County Neighborhood Services have coordinated more than 40 service providers and agencies to visit Pride Park neighborhoods and help connect residents to jobs, child care resources, parenting tools, public services, vocational training and healthy activities for children and families. Games and other fun activities are planned at the following locations in Pride Park:

·        Pine Village at 5631 11th Street East
·        57th Avenue and 10th Street East
·        56th Avenue Drive and 8th Street Court East
·        South East Resident’s Association at 1108 61st Avenue Terrace East
·        61st Avenue & 1st Street East

 The events in Pride Park will be held from 5 – 7 p.m. in the neighborhoods, followed by a free movie sponsored by Manatee County Parks and Recreation and the YMCA in the Pride Park ball fields at 9th Street and 63rd Avenue East. For more information on the Pride Park events, call Elizabeth Sibell-Field, resident opportunities & self-sufficiency coordinator with Manatee County Housing Authority at (941) 756-3974 ext. 135

For more information on the Goblin Gathering, call (941) 742-5923 or visit www.mymanatee.org/parks