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For Streets Too Scary For Trick-Or-Treating, Florida Keys Creates Safe Spaces

Nancy Klingener
/
WLRN
Keys kids work on making monster crafts at the Debris-Free Trick-or-Treat party on Bay Point Tuesday.

More than a million cubic yards of debris has been hauled out of the Florida Keys since Hurricane Irma — but there’s still enough wreckage along the sides of the roads to make trick-or-treating a scary prospect in some neighborhoods. And not in a good way.

So Monroe County came up with an alternative: Two debris-free trick-or-treat parties at county parks, one in Bay Point in the Lower Keys and one in Key Largo.

“If your neighborhood’s not safe, if the debris is still on the roads, we want them to have a good place to come and have fun,” said Chrissy Collins, the county’s executive administrator of parks and beaches and facilities.

Dozens of tiny pirates, ninjas, fairies, monsters and a few young Wonder Women turned out for the party which included not only candy but also games, food for the adults — and teeth cleaning tools from a local dentist’s office.

Lucy Katz was one of the pirates.

“It’s kind of cool,” said 7-year-old Lucy Katz, who lives on Big Coppitt, just a few miles down the road from the park.

She said her neighborhood did “pretty good. We got a little bit of leakage” but her house is OK.

Robert Randall was bringing his 4-year-old daughter Penelope. They lived on Big Pine Key before Irma. Now they live in Key West.

“It’s been a little hard on her for sure,” he said.

Nancy Klingener was WLRN's Florida Keys reporter until July 2022.
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