Bluff Park to hold first Witches Ride

October 8, 2018 9:10 AM

Courtesy of Laura Powell

Two Bluff Park mothers have joined together to create a new Halloween event for the community. The Bluff Park Witches Ride, created by Laura Onstott Powell and Katie Fanning Dixon, will bring the citizens of Bluff Park together to enjoy food, drinks and a good time.

Gaining the idea from other Witches Rides around the area, Powell and Dixon wanted to bring something similar to their own community and raise money for the Alabama PKU Foundation. After learning about the foundation from a friend with a grandchild diagnosed with PKU, which is a genetic disorder that can cause brain damage and intellectual disabilities, the two mothers decided to raise support for it and the families that it helps.

“There’s just not a lot of funding for it,” Powell said. “So they usually send a mother home with special formula that they have to use and they’re running out of money and funds to do that. So we want to help support that.”

The Alabama PKU Foundation supports families with children born with PKU by providing them with formula and other special necessities needed for the children who must live on a special diet for their entire lives due to the absence of a protein in the body.

Women can participate in the Bluff Park Witches Ride by dressing in costume and decorating their bikes as brooms. They will then ride a route through the community and give out candy to waiting children.

The ride will start and end at Shades Park. Along with the ride, the evening will feature three different food trucks that will be set up. Families can line the streets along the bike route to fill their bags with candy.

“We’re hoping to bring together just lots of different people from the community to get to know each other,” Powell said. “We’re hoping to bring more awareness to the Alabama PKU Foundation and those babies and the families who need support.”

The event will be held on Sunday, Oct. 21 at Shades Park starting at 3:30 p.m. Tickets are $32.17 and can be bought on the event’s Facebook page, along with more information.