ABOVE: Patti Edick hands out candy to little “Buzz” and “Bo Peep” from “Toy Story” while Vanessa Schultze looks on outside of the Sentinel office on Downtown Plaza in Fairmont on Thursday evening. Downtown saw several hundred children and families come through on Halloween for not only regular trick-or-treating but trunk-or-treating, too.

FAIRMONT– The day started with snow and held steady with temperatures in the 40s but that didn’t stop people from coming to downtown Fairmont in droves on Halloween night. Along with storefront businesses welcoming trick-or-treaters, this year additional businesses were set up for truck-or-treating.

Downtown businesses typically get about 400 to 500 trick-or-treaters each Halloween and this year members of the Greater Plaza Area Council (formerly Downtown Association) wanted to open up the event to all businesses in the community so a call was sent out earlier this fall to invite them to set up to ‘trunk-or-treat’ and more than 20 businesses, churches and other organizations signed up to do so.

One business was Profinium Bank, which is located down the road from Downtown Plaza at 105 Lake Avenue. Kristina Jorgensen, a mortgage loan servicer, said they typically get about 20 or so trick-or-treaters at their location so they were excited to be a part of a bigger event downtown.

“We like to be part of the community and often participate in things and give back,” Jorgensen said.

Profiunium was giving away build-your-own mask kits and Jorgensen said they had 500 on hand. They were nearly out of them about 40 minutes into the event, which was scheduled from 4 to 5 p.m.

While Fairmont Roofing has a storefront downtown, the business also had one of its vehicles set up outside and was giving away full size candy bars out of it. Office Manager Dawn Petrowiak said she felt that it was busier than usual.

“From what I can tell it’s been a great turnout. I think we’ve probably seen close to 600 or 650,” Petrowiak said.

She said she thought it was a good idea to invite more businesses to come downtown.

“It brings people together and we’ve had a really good flow through the downtown area,” she said.

The city of Fairmont was also able to participate in a bigger way as Mayor Lee Baarts and City Administrator Matt Skaret had a table set up outside of city hall and were giving away a variety of items including candy, snacks and stickers.

“Kids were respectful and took one piece and we couldn’t be happier about the turnout,” Baarts said.

He extended a thank you to the Greater Plaza Area Council for organizing the event.

For the second year Imagine Martin was out taking pictures of children and families dressed in costumes next to the mural on the first black of Downtown Plaza.

Chairman Jeff Rouse said that the crowds wildly exceeded their expectations. He said last year he took around 400 photos and greatly surpassed that on Thursday evening.

“This was a great idea and we hope it continues. It’s great to see everyone together,” Rouse said.

Kim White of Fairmont Awards was an organizer of the event and she confirmed on Thursday that they do plan to continue the event annually.

“I heard positive feedback from the businesses. There was more kids this year than last year. We’re thinking about 700,” White said.

In addition to the event downtown, Woodland Avenue drew large crowds as it has in pervious years and many local nursing homes opened up for trick-or treating. The Martin County Library in Fairmont also had events planned.