by Iva Kestrankova
This year’s Halloween was a completely different experience for everyone. Due to COVID-19 precautions and restrictions, people had to find new ways to enjoy this holiday while keeping everyone safe. That included spacing candies out on the front lawn or installing so-called candy chutes—a pipe used for sliding candies down to trick or treaters.
Finding an original way to keep the holiday alive was important to Jonny Soroka, owner of Jonny’s Towing and Recovery in Richmond, B.C, so he organized a mobile Haunted Tow Truck show to bring joy and fun not only to his two kids, who are big fans of Halloween but also to everyone in his community.
Spending about 400 hours to plan and produce this show, Jonny turned his 2003 Chevrolet, C7500 Crew Cab with its Right Approach Deck into a spooky graveyard. It featured gloomy tombstones and a coffin displayed on the deck along with talking pumpkins and skeletons leaning on a truck cabin. “Those three pumpkins welcome people to the show, they sing, make fun of each other and guests,” described Jonny. Click here to watch the 20-minute show.
Jonny’s original intention was to drive with his decorated flat deck through several public Richmond parks on Halloween night, however, he had to change his plans due to public safety measures effective in the City of Richmond to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Eventually, shortly before Halloween, Richmond Church on Five approached Jonny to join their family festivities. “They asked me to be the final truck of their Drive-Through Trick or Treat line-up,” he said. To keep physical distancing, all attending kids and parents were instructed to stay in their vehicles when driving by and stopping at each presenters’ stations. That way, children were able to enjoy Halloween treats from the safety of their cars. “The turnout was great, I really enjoyed it,” said Jonny, who joined the event together with his wife and kids.
Taking his Halloween show seriously, Jonny put lots of effort into building this project. “I worked really hard on it,” he said. “I wanted it to be something special for kids so this year’s Halloween is not a complete bust.” Even though he envisioned the show to be different from a “drive-through” procession, he is excited about how things turned out and pleased with the public response.
Jonny’s main goal was to do something fun and thrilling for the community and in that sense, he succeeded. When his truck hit the road, it turned many heads and garnered lots of admiration.
Now, with Halloween behind, he is already coming up with fresh ideas of how to decorate his truck for Remembrance Day and Christmas.
