Crystal Lake at the Newburgh Sanctuary - still water ringed by woods
Event Proposal Halloween · Sat, Oct 31 Free & open to all

After Incarceration presents Boo-tiful Moments at Crystal Lake

Hosted by The Newburgh Sanctuary The Newburgh Sanctuary

Six hours on the land. Pumpkin painting, trunk-or-treat, music and a resource hub for the whole community — and a haunted trail walk through the woods above the water.

Get free tickets Free, but please register — it tells us how many to staff for.
DateSat, October 31, 2026
Time3:00 PM – 9:00 PM
Where61 Temple Ave, Newburgh NY
AdmissionFree to the community
01 Event overview

Families, friends, and local vendors, together for a night of creative connection — and then a walk through the haunted woods.

After Incarceration's Boo-tiful Moments opens at three o'clock with pumpkin painting, mask making, trick-or-treating and trunk-or-treat, hosted on the Newburgh Sanctuary's reclaimed acres. As darkness falls, the woods above the lake become a haunted trail.

Running the whole time, in the middle of all of it, is a Public Health and Civic Education Hub — health screenings, civic education, public safety information, and wellness resources, staffed by partner organizations from open to close.

Boo-tiful Moments is an After Incarceration tradition. This year it moves onto the land the Newburgh Sanctuary has spent five seasons bringing back to life with art, music and culture.

A hand-painted Sanctuary sign at the edge of the garden beds
The Sanctuary's hand-painted signage marks the garden's edge. The camp's look is built from this vocabulary, not from store-bought Halloween.
02 Event goals

Six things this evening is meant to accomplish. The costumes are how we get there.

Safety first

Ensure a secure, festive environment for everyone on site.

Activate space

Establish Crystal Lake as a vibrant community hub.

Engage youth

Offer seasonal fun built for kids and families.

Support local

Showcase Newburgh's vendors, artists, and partners.

Connect resources

Link residents to health and safety services.

Ensure access

Provide transportation so the event is genuinely inclusive.

03 Event schedule

One continuous evening, three o'clock to nine.

Nothing shuts down to make room for anything else. The hub, the food lawn and the market run the entire six hours; the haunted trail opens once it is properly dark and the trail lighting is up.

A narrow footpath running into dense woods above the lake
The wooded corridor above the water — the spine of the haunted trail.
04 Core activities

Five things running across six hours. One of them is why people come; the rest are why it matters.

A masked figure in a Friday the 13th shirt against a graffitied wall in Newburgh
From 6:00 PM

The Haunted Trail

A guided walk on foot through the woods above Crystal Lake after dark, past themed set pieces and costumed volunteers staged as the Dead Camp Counselors.

  • Guided haunted trail. Groups walk the wooded corridor with a chaperone at the front and back.
  • Dead Camp Counselors. Costumed volunteers hold fixed positions — no chasing, no contact.
  • Themed set pieces. Camp cabin facades built on site from reclaimed lumber, lit and dressed.
  • Intensity. Spooky, not extreme. Built for families — younger children walk with their adult.
Painted community tables set up for a workday at the Sanctuary
From 3:00 PM

Family Activities

Open from the moment the gates do, with nothing in it designed to frighten anybody.

  • Trick-or-treating across the garden paths.
  • Trunk-or-treat in the parking area, hosted by partner organizations.
  • Mask making — paper and fabric, finished in time for the contest.
  • Pumpkin painting — no carving tools, no age limit.
  • Halloween music on the Sanctuary's existing deck stage.
Two community members photographed together in the garden
Portraits from 4:30 · Contest 7:30

Costume Contest

Boo-tiful Moments' own tradition, run as the evening's centrepiece — and nobody pays for a portrait.

  • Costume portraits at the photo booth through the evening.
  • Contestant selection from the portraits taken across the night.
  • Live crowd vote — top five finalists showcase on stage at 7:30.
  • Consent first. Photo-release opt-in is collected at check-in; anyone can decline and still take part.
Community members gathered with tote bags beside tables at the Sanctuary
All evening

Resource Hub

The Public Health and Civic Education Hub — a staffed row of partner tables, open the full six hours. The part of the event that outlives the night.

  • Health screenings delivered on site by local public-health providers.
  • Civic education — voter registration, rights information, reentry and legal services.
  • Public safety information, including Flock camera awareness.
  • Wellness resources and take-home kits, in English and Spanish.
  • Why it works here. People who would never attend a resource fair will walk past one on the way to a haunted trail.
Food laid out on tables under the trees at a Sanctuary gathering
All evening

Food & Market

Local trucks and Newburgh makers on the open lawn, placed so the queue for the trail and the queue for dinner are the same crowd.

  • Local food trucks — Newburgh-based operators given priority.
  • Seasonal beverages — cider and hot drinks. No alcohol.
  • Craft vendor tables for local artists and makers, including the Sanctuary's own growers.
  • Placement. Lawn-side, before the trail head, so nobody eats and walks the woods at the same time.
05 How a group moves through it

Order is the safety plan. Every group takes the same five steps, in the same sequence, with a staff member at each handoff.

  1. 01Check-in & waiver

    Group is registered, wristbanded, and counted at the entry table. Liability waivers for trail activities and photo-release opt-in are collected here.

  2. 02Staggered entry

    Groups hold at the trail head and are dispatched in waves to manage flow. A chaperone gives the rules: stay on the lit path, actors don't touch you, say "house lights" to stop.

  3. 03Guided walk & set pieces

    The group walks the wooded corridor on foot, past the camp cabin facades and the Dead Camp Counselors' fixed positions.

  4. 04The overlook

    The route breaks at the water for a moment of quiet before the last stretch — and the best photograph of the night.

  5. 05Exit to the lawn

    The trail empties directly onto the vendor lawn. Counted out, and group size reconciled against check-in.

A wooden arbor gateway into the Sanctuary garden
Existing garden structures — arbors, gates, painted boards — become the camp's built vocabulary. Less to construct, more that belongs.
06 Logistics & safety

Night, woods, water, and several hundred people. This is the section the answer actually depends on.

Transportation support — partner sought

To make the event genuinely accessible and to keep parking off Temple Avenue, we are seeking a partner to provide shuttle service between central Newburgh and the Sanctuary.

That means designated pickup locations, a published schedule running from before gates to after close, and specific accommodations for elders and for families with mobility needs. Final return trips leave at 9:00 PM.

Check-in & waivers

A single controlled entrance with a mandatory check-in table. Every guest registers and signs a liability waiver before any trail activity; minors are wristbanded to a named adult.

Head count in equals head count out, reconciled at the trail exit.

Staggered entry

The haunted trail dispatches in waves rather than a queue, keeping groups spaced along the route and preventing bunching at the set pieces.

Last entry is 8:30 PM, which leaves a full sweep before close.

Trained staff & exits

Trained staff hold fixed positions and manage each handoff, carrying long-range walkie-talkies rather than phones — the site has unreliable cellular service and the radios do not depend on it.

Emergency exits are marked and walked before gates open. A named site lead holds the radio net and the stop-the-event call.

Strategic lighting

Pathways, gathering areas, and shuttle zones are lit deliberately: the trail to a controlled minimum — dark enough to work, bright enough that nobody trips on a root — and the lawn, hub, and pickup points to full visibility.

Trip hazards are flagged and taped during the daylight walk-through.

07 Partner support needed

Free to attend. Built by volunteers. Underwritten by partners and vendors.

After Incarceration produces and staffs the event; the Newburgh Sanctuary hosts it on its land. We are inviting local organizations and sponsors to contribute in five specific areas — any one of them moves this forward.

Nothing in this proposal requires the land to be anything other than what it already is.

A community sign in the garden reading Newburgh Wants A Park
The Sanctuary's own signage. This event is one more season of the same argument.
08 The land as it stands

Every photograph here is the actual site, in season, before a single set piece goes up.

Presented byAfter Incarceration140 South Street, Newburgh, NY 12550 · (845) 402-8559
AudienceNewburgh & the Hudson ValleyFamilies, teens, and adults. Free admission, all ages.
VenueThe Newburgh Sanctuary61 Temple Avenue, Newburgh, NY 12550
Coming to the event

Reserve your spot

Admission is free and open to everyone. Registering in advance helps us staff the trail, the shuttle, and the food lawn for the right number of people.

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Bringing something to it

Partner or volunteer

Build and installation, volunteers, transportation, resources, prizes and supplies. Tell us which of the five you can cover.

Partner support form