MOUNTAIN PINE -- The Mountain Pine community and its school district will welcome the public to the third annual free Red Devil Bash on Saturday.
The community event will be held Saturday from 2-5 p.m. between the old gymnasium at 199 Third St. and the post office at 240 Main St. Attendance, prizes and all refreshments are free.
"It is combining all of the resources in the community, instead of each church or each group doing their own thing," said Mountain Pine Elementary School Principal Toby Crosby. "We are trying to get it together to where it is a safe place for all of our students to come and spend some time with their families."
Bounce houses, a photo booth, petting zoo, hay rides, hay bell bowling and a variety of games will be available Saturday. Morgan Wiles, the CEO and co-owner of Morfe Properties, donated several games to the event. Wiles and fellow Morfe co-owner Shaun Keefe announced last month part of their more than $20 million window manufacturing and retail concern will be operational in April at the site of the former Weyerhaeuser sawmill in Mountain Pine.
Organizers plan to meet on Tuesday to finalize the details. Crosby said they hope to add a dunk tank before Saturday.
Several area churches plan to offer trunk-or-treat games and the local 4-H Club will lead cake walks. First-, second- and third-place prizes will be offered for a Halloween costume contest.
"Everything is to build community spirit around Mountain Pine and get the community involved," Crosby said.
A student helped jump start the new event two years ago when they approached the school with what they heard from their parents about the Mountain Pine community.
"Their parents talked about how Mountain Pine used to have community events all the time and it would be great if we could do something like this," Crosby said. "With three weeks to spare, we just kind of threw some stuff together. We got a couple of bounce houses and Minute to Win It games and we actually did our first one.
"Our goal with it, that very first year, was to get it big enough that it would be a community event. This year, it has taken off."
Several dozen volunteers helped lead games and activities for more than 300 guests at last year's Devil Bash. Crosby said the district received an overwhelmingly positive response when they reached out at the start of the month to the volunteers from a year ago.
"The support and how it is growing is amazing," Crosby said.
All school clubs were invited to participate. Crosby said the 4-H Club and Mountain Pine High School cheerleaders are among school groups planning to volunteer on Saturday.
Local on 10/22/2017