Friends and Neighbors: Stay-at-home mom spear-heads Kimball Fall Festival

With 3-year-old twin boys and two older children, Kelleigh Huff certainly stays busy. However, her children were the inspiration behind a project that keeps her even busier each October.

Huff, a teacher prior to moving to Kimball three years ago, had little extra time on her hands, but was searching for a more enjoyable opportunity for her youngsters at Halloween.

"As we approached Halloween, when my boys were 1, we were thinking you never know if there is going to be a blizzard. It's really not that enjoyable to take them outside in the dark and freezing," she said. "We saw that some of these were going on in the surrounding areas, just not here. So we went to a few of them and we thought we can do that here."

Huff asked for feedback about how the event might be received in Kimball, and she decided to make it happen.

The inaugural festival was held the evening after Halloween last year in the Kimball Event Center, while the second annual event will be hosted at the Kimball Health Services North Campus in what was once the West Elementary School.

Huff added that the numerous community partnerships have made the event a success, and that Keno grant money offsets the costs.

"We lucked out, last year was our first year and we had tons of businesses and individuals volunteer their time to do a booth, and everything is free," she said. "Participants just come to play games, and be warm and safe."

Besides giving her the chance to be active outside the home and provide an alternative to trick-or-treating, Huff said the activity provided her an opportunity to have conversations with new people in her new hometown.

"It was good for me because I didn't really know how to navigate being a stay-at-home mom, and so that way I basically talked to every business person downtown," she said. "It was a way to learn what else is going on."

The initial challenge for Huff was trying to draw people in to have a booth since it was a brand new idea. Each booth would offer a game, and Huff provided the prizes and candy. People were unsure of committing the necessary time for the inaugural event.

"They (were) not sure if they want to help because they are not sure how it is going to go. And we are all really busy," she said. "I tried to make it as easy as possible on everyone."

With a little explanation, she said, many were eager to help for the inaugural event. That challenge remedied itself for this second year, she said, because the vendors all know what they can expect.

"They just have to show up and play a game. It could be as simple as a bean bag toss, darts and balloons, and another one was a ring toss. The whole goal of it was to just be really simple, for young people," she said.

Volunteers include nearly 30 local businesses, school groups, churches and civic organizations, and this year two more vendors have been added to the list.

Though Huff provides all the candy, vendors at the booths may hand out bookmarks, pencils and other business-specific prizes. While Huff organizes the event alone, she has help when it comes to making the food.

The event includes a costume contest for participants from birth to age 12, broken down into age groups. A panel of three judges chooses the winners and gift bags are given to the winners.

More than 200 servings of chili were made last year by Penny Merryfield, and Huff said that they ran out at the event. For this year, a family has volunteered to make the desserts for the occasion.

In addition to the Kimball Fall Festival, Huff also began a fun run in the summer to benefit Oliver Reservoir. And with another project in the works, to be announced at a later date, she remains as busy as ever. As for the fall festival, she plans to keep it going strong by keeping it free and simple.

"We'll just do the same thing every year as long as people keep coming," she said.