Larchmont Chronicle
OCTOBER 2020
SECTION ONE
27
COVID’s latest casualty: Halloween 2020, but candy endures By Caroline Tracy Halloween is one of this community’s, and all of greater Los Angeles’, most beloved holidays. Maybe it’s our residents’ penchant for set and costume design or our balmy late October nights? Either way, the celebrations usually begin well before Oct. 31. As with all aspects of life in the COVID-19 era, things are a bit different this year. In fact, a set of guidelines handed down by the Los Angeles County Dept. of Public Health on Sept. 9 essentially banned
THIRD STREET By Sofia Kirilov 5th Grade
Like many other schools in California and across the country, the start of this school year at Third Street Elementary has been very different. Due to the coronavirus and school closures, we cannot meet our teachers and school friends in person. Instead, all our students, teachers, and families have had to adapt to online learning. We now login to Schoology in the morning and interact with our teachers through daily Zoom meetings. I miss school as it was before the coronavirus, but I feel lucky to be at Third Street virtual school. Even though a lot of things have changed because of distance learning, some things are still the same. Most importantly, we are still learning! Through synchronous class activities over Zoom, as well as asynchronous assignments we complete on our own, everyday we are learning something new. Over Zoom, we also still have extracurricular activities like physical education, mindfulness practice, and technology lab. Our school even has virtual assemblies! For Hispanic Heritage Month, at school assemblies our principal and student volunteers had presentations on important Hispanic Americans. Our Third Street community is as strong as ever! We had a “Back to School Drive-Thru Celebration” to pick up our school materials. Our annual giving drive was a great start to our school’s fundraising activities. We also had a “Family Takeout Night” on Larchmont, with a portion of the proceeds from the Burger Lounge, Jeni’s Ice Cream and Chipotle being donated to our school. In addition to funding many key programs at Third Street, these donations now also help our school support athome learning. I look forward to reporting more positive news from Third Street Elementary throughout this challenging school year!
the holiday (listing any social gatherings, parades and door-to-door trick-or-treating as “not permitted”). The next day, however, officials released revised guidelines, upgrading trick-or-treating from “not permitted” to “not recommended.” Local Response I happened to be on the sidelines at my son’s soccer pod on the evening of the first announcement, and the reactions (on the part of four other moms) were of dismay. “They’ve suffered/endured so much loss already,” one mom lamented, speaking on behalf of the children. Of course, we adults love Halloween too and, luckily, we’ve all had a chance to sharpen our creative thinking and problem-solving skills as of late (thanks, COVID). I’ve spoken to a number of families in the area about their
plans, and many are moving forward with aspects of the holiday that involve little-tono risk. Costumes, decorations and, YES, candy “My kids will dress up as characters from Disney’s ‘The Mandalorian’ and we’ll decorate according to that theme as well,” said Nicky Coscas, Cloverdale and Third. “We are also doing a piñata smash. Even though it will just be us this year, the kids are still excited. They got to pick out the candy to fill the piñata, so there will be no ‘bad’ candy.” Neenu Uttamchandani, of Las Palmas and Third, is looking forward to decorating, both for her family and the benefit of any ogling neighbors. “We will probably make a big deal of it since it’s the kids’ favorite holiday. So,
we’ll dress up, but instead of going trick-or-treating, we’ll decorate the house in a big way for people driving by. For candy, we’ll do our own little scavenger hunt,” says Uttamchandani. The news hasn’t deterred
some from getting into the spirit early. As of the writing of this piece, Sycamore and Olympic resident April O’Brien, a self-proclaimed Halloween nut, had her house decorated for two weeks already.
Pumpkin patch, fall décor at Original Farmers Market
THE ORIGINAL FARMERS MARKET will be dressed up for fall.
Get into the spirit of the fall season with a visit to a pumpkin patch and to see the Original Farmers Market, 6333 W. Third St., decked out in autumnal splendor, Sat., Oct. 10 and Sun., Oct. 11. A limited number of visitors at a time may enjoy the pumpkin patch, with social distancing strictly enforced, and the decorations can be enjoyed all month. For more information, go to farmersmarketla.com.
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