Trick-or-treaters visit Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill

MERRILL – Pine Crest Nursing Home in Merrill was busy on Thursday, Oct. 31, as trick-or-treaters collected candy from residents for Halloween.

Diana Zimmerman’s father John Sladek is a resident at the nursing home.

“It's such a nice thing that the Pine Crest nursing home does, they open it up and people donate candy throughout the whole community, and then they let it open up for the kids to come through. It's entertainment for the residents that live here, and then also all the kids can go around collecting candy,” she said.

Her father talked about the benefits of trick-or-treating at the nursing home.

“They all could be in one place. Don't have to worry about them going off by themselves, and you never know what street they're going to go on this way, they're all here. They're watching, they're taken care of, and they get all the candy they want,” said Sladek.

One trick or treater explained that her mom works at Pine Crest and every year, she trick-or-treats here with her family.

“I'm dressed up as a clown,” she said.

Another trick-or-treater was dressed up as Sully from Monsters Inc.

“We will go to have candy,” he explained.

One family was dressed up like the family from the Incredibles, Violet and Jack-Jack included.

“It's been in the community for a while, so we like to come here, especially when it's gross outside,” said a trick-or-treater.

Last Thursday night, the temperature was in the 40’s and rainy, so many trick-or-treaters said they were finding respite from the bad weather at Pine Crest.

“We're gonna stop here for our last stop and hopefully get a couple more pieces of candy before we melt in the rain,” a trick-or-treater said.

Rose Wendorf is a member of the Alliance of Therapy Dogs and brought her therapy dog, dressed as a triceratops, to visit family and trick-or-treat.

“It's a little more crowded than I figured it was going to be,” said Wendorf.