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Boofest continues to grow, in second year post-pandemic

By Tabitha Johnston - Chronicle Staff | Nov 3, 2023

Flyeye Design's Sarah Arzt paints the face of Winchester Avenue Elementary School student Sapphire Stanford on King Street on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Boofest officially came to a close on Tuesday night, as hundreds of trick-or-treaters visited homes and business throughout downtown Shepherdstown.

For the weeklong festival’s organizing committee, the growth in attendance of the festival this year was clearly apparent.

“It’s a perfect, spooky Halloween weekend day for people to come out! There’s tons of traffic,” said Boofest Committee member John Meeker. “Yesterday, you could barely get down the sidewalk, there were so many people in town. It was great!”

Meeker was stationed in front of The Wall around McMurran Hall, where he was selling tickets to vote on the winners in the second annual Boofest Pumpkin Decorating Contest. Proceeds from the contest were donated to Shepherdstown Shares, as was the case with the contest proceeds last year.

“People have been enthusiastic. They are donating a lot of money to Shepherdstown Shares to vote,” Meeker said, noting the rain on Sunday morning led to a decrease in contest entries, along with the postponement of the Paw Parade in front of Erma Ora Byrd Hall to Nov. 5 at 1 p.m. “We’re still having a good time!”

Sisters Diana Carroll, of Shepherdstown, and Darla Deibler, of Stroudsburg, Pa., enjoy spending time together at the Enchanted Tea Party in the War Memorial Building on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston

Boofest Committee member Mary Buffington, who brought the festival back from its COVID-19 Pandemic closure last year, said she was thrilled to see how the hard work of the committee had paid off.

“You have to think about where we were during COVID — there was nothing!” Buffington said. “This is a new concept for Boofest, from what it was before the pandemic, but I’m really happy with how it has grown over the past two years.”

When Buffington began thinking up what post-pandemic Boofest should look like, she knew she wanted it to be doing good in a variety of ways. And so, Shepherdstown Shares became the recipient of the proceeds from the Boofest Pumpkin Decorating Contest and Stars That Shine, a young women’s empowerment program, became the recipient of proceeds raised from the Enchanting Tea Party on the second story of the War Memorial Building on Sunday afternoon. In the future, she hopes to see even more nonprofits benefiting from the festival.

“That, to me, is really important. I like having our nonprofits involved,” Buffington said.

Over in the Boofest Market, which was held on South King Street in the block beside McMurran Hall, a third nonprofit was drawing some attention from passersby.

A couple of children walk through the Haunted Hallway in the War Memorial Building on Sunday. Tabitha Johnston

“Girls on the Run is really great! Especially as a nurse in the area, I know that we have a lot of people who are unhealthy in our state. This is a program that, hopefully, doesn’t just get them exercising, but empowers them,” Buffington said.

On the first floor of the War Memorial Building, Shepherdstown resident Judy Shepherd was busy, popping fresh popcorn for visitors to her family’s 17-year-old Halloween tradition, the Haunted Hallway.

“We added a pirate in a bathtub with some bubbles and a group of trick-or-treaters, who are preparing to paper the town! We try to buy something every year, to add to it,” Shepherd said. “We don’t ask for money or anything. The best payment is when people show that they are appreciative of what my family does.”

As was the case with Boofest prior to the pandemic, Shepherd said she had already seen a large number of visitors to the Haunted Hallway throughout Boofest. She anticipated seeing that number grow by a couple thousand, by the end of festival on Halloween night.

One of the winning jack-o-lanterns from the Boofest Pumpkin Decorating Contest sits on The Wall in front of McMurran Hall on Sunday afternoon. Tabitha Johnston