The Joliet Police Department hosted its annual trunk-or-treat on Saturday, providing families a chance to dress up in their Halloween costumes a week early and gather candy from local volunteers.

“We’ve got 15 trunks this year, which is the most we’ve ever had,” said Deputy Police Chief Sherrie Blackburn, who was coordinating the event. “Last year, we had about 500 bags to give out to the kiddos and we ran out, this year we’ve got a thousand and we expect to use them all.”

The trunks passing out candy were run by law enforcement teams including the Joliet Police Explorers, the K9 unit, Joliet Police Operations,and Joliet 9-1-1 operators, as well as municipal organizations and non-profits including Joliet Township Animal Control, the Will County Children’s Advocacy Center, the Will County Health Department, the Will County Center for Community Concerns, Morning Star Mission, and Catholic Charities’ Daybreak Center. Wintrust Bank and the AFSCME Local 440 Joliet city employees’ union also contributed trunks.

Participants were all given one ticket each to vote for their favorite trunk and the winner would receive a plaque at the end of the day.

“It’s just a fun event to give back to the community,” said Blackburn. “It’s all run by the volunteers and the organizations donate the candy.”

“This is amazing,” said Stephanie Quiroz, who was attending in matching costumes with her husband Ramon and their two children. “It’s fun and it’s good for the community. It’s a great to bring everyone out together right now.”

While the kids were excited to receive candy from all the trunks, some of the most popular stations were the K9 unit, where kids were welcome to pet the four-legged officers, and the AFSCME vehicle, which was fully themed to look like a scene from Jurassic Park, complete with inflatable dinosaur costumes on the volunteers.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said volunteer Christina VanGessel. “We did this before for a trivia night, and it was a hit so we figured why not do it again for Halloween? It’s perfect.”

In addition to trick-or-treating the event featured Halloween-themed music being played by a volunteer officer DJ, and a touch-a-truck featuring vehicles from the Joliet Police Department, the city sanitation department, the Joliet Fire Department, and Waste Management, which helped sponsor the event.

“Obviously, the kiddos want candy, but they really love the touch-a-truck,” said Blackburn. “They get to climb around and take pictures, and it’s something they don’t get to do often.”

“The kids are really enjoying it,” said Britney Thorstad, who was attending with her husband, Joliet Police officer Tyler Thorstad and their kids. “Everybody’s having a good time. there’s good music, and the touch-a-truck is always fun. The kids love petting the dogs. It’s just good to see so many people out supporting the community.”

“We got a really good turnout,” said Blackburn. “It’s a little cold, but it’s not too windy, and there was no rain or inclement weather, so the kids are able to dress up and have some fun for a few hours. And that’s what matters.”