ST. HELENS, Kids can spend Halloween morning at McBride Elementary tossing rings, dropping Plinko chips, riding a hayride and watching witches dance, and their parents won’t pay a cent for any of it.
The Kiwanis Day Breakers Children’s Fair runs 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 31, at the school, 2774 Columbia Blvd. This is the 34th year the club has put it on.
“The beauty of the event is that it is 100% free to attend,” said Lynn Chiotti, who sits on the fair’s planning committee.
Free from Start to Finish
“We do not charge anything and we do not allow any participating group to ask for donations from those attending,” she said.
It was free the last two years as well, according to the Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District’s 2024 event listing and the county’s 2025 listing.
What Kids Will Find
The stage changes over every hour. Vault Elite Cheer, a youth choir, the Hispanic dancers from St. Frederic Catholic Church and the Witches from Halloweentown each get a turn, Chiotti said.
A reptile show is driving down from Longview and taking over the cafeteria, according to the fair’s participant list. Last year’s reptiles included Tang, an albino Chinese beauty snake the color of butter.
The hayride is back. Chiotti calls it the annual hayride, and it was on last year’s schedule too.
Last year the fair filled the McBride gym, cafeteria and play area with fishponds, face painting, balloon art and The Reptile Man, according to the county’s listing. Monica Cade’s photos from that day show witches in tall pointed hats spinning across the gym floor and a kid in a head-to-toe green alien suit heading past the booths.
Who’ll Be There
Almost every table has a game, and a lot of them have prizes. The participant list Chiotti shared with the Tribune names more than 30 booths. Here’s what’s waiting, sorted by what your kid is in the mood for.
Spin It, Toss It, Win It
For the kid who wants a prize in hand by 10:15:
- Prize wheels at Advocate Access NW, the Columbia County Dairy Women, Durham School Bus Services, Legacy Medical Group and the Oregon Health Insurance Marketplace
- Plinko at the Amani Center, and Plinko plus a spin game at St. Helens Pediatric Dentistry
- Ring toss at Nova Orthodontics
- A dice game at OnPoint Credit Union
- Velcro dart ball at Columbia River PUD
- Tic-tac-toe with ducks at 211info
- A fish pond run by Caples House, the 1870 farmhouse museum in Columbia City (background)
- A prize draw at Columbia Health Services that the list calls, plainly, “pick the booger”
Make Something
For the kid who’d rather sit down and get their hands busy:
- Build-your-own monsters at Next Path Academy, and a monster craft plus sensory play at Creekside Junior Academy
- Pumpkin decorating at Next Path Therapy Center
- Sucker ghosts with the Rainbow Girls
- Popcorn making at Wauna Credit Union
- A bug collection and drawing with the OSU Extension Service
- Coloring at the Columbia Pacific Food Bank, bookmark coloring at the Amani Center Family Resource Center, and drug awareness coloring books from Elks Lodge 1999
Take Something Home
Some kids will leave with more than candy:
- Free books and bookmarks from United Way
- Free clothing at Western Heating and Cooling’s table, which the list describes as “free clothing / exchange”
- The St. Helens Public Library’s table is about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which mails a free book every month to children from birth to age 5. The library runs it in Columbia County with United Way, according to the city’s library page and the state’s program page.
For Bigger Kids and Grown-Ups
- Vault Elite is setting up a training area
- Columbia County Traffic Safety has Oregon Impact impairment goggles for parents and newly licensed teens, plus car seat information
- OSU Extension’s Master Gardeners will have a table too
Columbia Community Mental Health, the Oregon Department of Human Services, Columbia County Health Promotion Services, Explore Health, the Columbia Soil and Water Conservation District and the Scappoose Bay Watershed Council will have tables as well. KOHI radio plans to broadcast live from the fair, and there’s a spot for pictures at the outside entrance.
A Crowd from Near and Far
Plan on company. Chiotti said about 4,000 people come through in a typical year, and the record is around 6,000.
Some of them travel a long way for it. She said the fair has drawn visitors from Canada, Europe and Japan.
“There is nothing like this most places,” she said.
Done in Time for Trick-or-Treating
Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, so the Day Breakers trimmed an hour off the fair. It ran until 4 p.m. last year. This year it ends at 3, which Chiotti said leaves families time to go trick-or-treating.
The weather may cooperate. The National Weather Service forecast as of Saturday, Oct. 24, called for a partly sunny Halloween with a high near 57, after a rainy week. Most of the fair is indoors either way, and forecasts a week out can change.
Who Pays Instead
The Day Breakers foot the bill, more than $3,500, Chiotti said. Members raise the money themselves, partly by volunteering at the Columbia County Fair. Running the day takes at least 30 volunteers, plus everyone working the booths.
The club has been a registered nonprofit since March 1989, according to Oregon Secretary of State records.
Fun with a Purpose
The fair started with one member’s idea, Chiotti said. Parents needed an easier way to find out what help the county offered them and their kids, and the member figured it had to happen somewhere fun.
Every booth still has to bring two things: a game or activity for kids and information for parents. This year that includes mental health resources, school information, OSU Extension’s Master Gardeners and a Columbia County Traffic Safety booth where parents and new teen drivers can try on Oregon Impact impairment goggles.
The coat exchange is back as well, and Western Heating and Cooling is sponsoring new clothing for boys 12 and under.
Trick-or-treat hours and the rest of the county’s Halloween events are in the Tribune’s Halloween guide.
Photos from the 2025 fair courtesy of Monica Cade.