CULLMAN, Ala. – Cullman Regional’s campus was alive with activity Thursday evening. The hospital’s fifth annual Trunk or Treat saw crowds of excited children, families and colorful and creatively decorated “trunks” manned by costumed Cullman Regional staff.
Cullman Regional Vice President of Marketing and Outreach Lindsey Dossey said, “You know, I think every year is just different and special, but our staff really takes a lot of time and puts a lot of effort into making these, we call them trunks, but they’re not really trunks, so ‘displays,’ exceptional, which is why the community comes out, because it’s just amazing! It’s a lot of fun; it’s really team-building for us, internally. Everybody comes together and has fun coming up with creative themes and when you see them, it’s pretty amazing!”
Dossey estimated there were 22 or 23 displays this year.
“What this is, is each of our departments, some smaller departments combined, but they do this together,” she said. “So, each department comes up with the theme and then they come up will all the décor, the costumes, everything. The hospital provides the candy, and we plan and promote it, but it doesn’t really require a lot of promotion.”
Dossey shared a brief history of the popular event.
“We actually started this out of our department the first year,” she said. “We thought, ‘Oh, it’ll be fun; it’ll be a great, positive interaction with the community and the hospital,’ because a lot of times when people come to the hospital, it’s not a positive thin-, it’s tragedy or something’s wrong, so we really just wanted to build relationships with the community we serve and we thought, ‘We’ll do a trunk or treat; it’ll be small, it’ll be fun!’”
According to Dossey, the first year saw probably 2,000 people.
“Even the first year, we had probably 2,000 people here, and it’s just continued (to get bigger). Word has spread. I think that our staff really goes above and beyond and it’s just continued to grow!”
Dossey estimated a whopping 8,000 people attended Thursday evening.
“This is the biggest we’ve ever had!” she exclaimed.
“It’s hard to prepare for this event,” she continued. “We never really know how many people are going to come, but we love to see the community come out. I think the fact that we have beautiful weather today certainly helped bring out more people, but I think the reputation of the thought and time and detail that our staff puts into the event, I think overall, it’s a success. We have thousands of people on campus, many people that skip the line and go straight to get food and bounce houses, so for us, any kind of positive interaction that we can have with out community, to have them here and it not be a tragic event, is a win for us. We’re just excited to do it; it’s fun for us, and we’re excited everyone came out!”
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