Irvington prepares for annual Safe Halloween event

IRVINGTON, NJ — Irvington’s annual Safe Halloween event will be on Monday, Oct. 31, from 3 to 5 p.m. in Civic Square and Sgt. Sheyla Zepeda of the Irvington Police Department said she’s looking forward to it.

“This is something we get together and do for the kids and the community every year,” said Zepeda on Thursday, Oct. 13. “We’ve literally got a room full of candy in the back of the headquarters, inside these old holding cells, that we don’t use to hold people in anymore. We’ve gotten so much support and so many donations from the police department and the fire department and all of the unions that I know this year’s event is going to be the biggest and the best ever.”

Zepeda also said she’s going all out to make sure this year’s Safe Halloween event is the best one to date. She said the goal is to make sure every that child who comes out on Monday, Oct. 31, receives something.

“Everyone in town has been so generous with the donations this year,” said Zepeda. “We’ve already got almost 400 bags of candy to hand out. But we never want to send any kids away empty-handed, so we got more candy to give away, to try and make sure that nobody gets left out.”

Mayor Tony Vauss emphasized the community nature of the upcoming event.

“This is the kind of thing that brings the whole community together, so you know that I’m all for it,” said Vauss on Monday, Oct. 24. “And this is something that the police department started doing on their own years ago, just because they wanted to do something nice for the kids and the community. I can’t say enough about Sgt. Zepeda and the rest of the police department and fire department and the job they’ve been doing for years and continue to do, to this day.”

For more information about the annual Safe Halloween event, call Zepeda at 973-416-5730.