Save the scares for inside

To the Editor:

As Halloween approaches, the annual Haunted House fundraiser sponsored by the Valley Stream Fire Department Engine 2 (Brooklyn Avenue) is being advertised all over town. And, like last year, a very gory, frightening, inappropriate mannequin adorns the facade of that building, scaring the wits out of my 3-year-old daughter for the second year on a row. If you haven’t seen it, it includes a bloody flesh-torn face atop a life-sized body dressed in blue coveralls tied to an electrocution table. Last year, if I am not mistaken, the mannequin also had red suspenders, a detail that has thankfully been left out this year. In my opinion, even without the red suspenders, this figure is eerily reminiscent of a fireman in its dress, and is, again, way too gruesome for public display.

My complaints this year and last have been blown off. I am sure I have been deemed a party pooper, and perhaps my feelings put me in the minority.

I do not begrudge the department the need for advertisement for fundraising efforts, but this mannequin needs to be brought inside for paying patrons looking for a good scare. It would behoove Company 2 to consider the community they serve, which includes many young children (and is down the block from an elementary school, in fact) and what image of the department they wish to portray. 

Tara Lauria

Valley Stream