Saturday, October 28, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.:
A free family event: Safe Haven Trick or Treating at the Mesa Market Place Swap Meet!
Bring all your ghosts and goblins in costume and let then trick or treat their way through 1600 booths starting at the Food Court! Trick or Treaters will each get a trick or treat bag and will enjoy contests, surprises and treats throughout the day.
Entertainer Linda Keith will be in the Food Court creating fun for Trick or Treaters and parents, alike. She’ll deliver music, dancing, free goody bags, contests from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m.
Merchants join in the festivities, too, by offering up candy, treats, and toys! “We have 900 merchants stocking 1600 shop spaces! I think this is the biggest daylight trick or treat event in the state of Arizona,” said Joan Wells, Market Place event organizer.
Both young people and their parents are also invited to color pictures and write notes to be included in Care Packages destined to go to Armed Forces personnel stationed in the Middle East. Packages From Home (www.packagesfromhome.org) sends out thousands of Care Packages annually, and insists that each package has a handwritten note or colored picture inside. Each artist and note-writer will get an ice cream sandwich.
The Mesa Market Place is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 7:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and is at 10550 E. Baseline Rd., Mesa, AZ 85209, at exit 193 Signal Butte Rd. and Hwy 60. Info: 480-380-5572 and www.mesamarket.com. Fully handicapped accessible. Free parking, admission, and entertainment.
The public and all service people are invited to participate in Mesa Market Place Swap Meet’s Beirut Barracks Bombings Remembrance at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, October 20. The POW MIA KIA Honor Guard will officiate and lead the remembrance.
The event is free, and will take place in the Main Food Court in the middle of the second row: Row B.
Before and after the remembrance, adults and children are invited to write notes and color pictures to go into ‘Packages From Home’ care packages headed to service people serving in the Middle East.
Here is some background information about the Beirut Barracks Bombings. On October 23, 1983, in Beirut, Lebanon, during the Lebanese Civil War, two truck bombs struck separate buildings housing United States and French military forces—members of the Multinational Force (MNF) in Lebanon—killing 299 American and French servicemen.
In the attack on the building serving as a barracks for the 1st Battalion 8th Marines (Battalion Landing Team – BLT 1/8), the death toll was 241 American servicemen: 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers, along with 60 Americans injured, representing the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States Marine Corps since World War II’s Battle of Iwo Jima, the deadliest single-day death toll for the United States military since the first day of the Vietnam War’s Tet Offensive, and the deadliest single attack on Americans overseas since World War II.
The Mesa Market Place is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 7:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. and is at 10550 E. Baseline Rd., Mesa, AZ 85209, at exit 193 Signal Butte Rd. and Hwy 60. Info: 480-380-5572 and www.mesamarket.com. Fully handicapped accessible. Free Parking, admission, and entertainment.
