PARIS – A new kind of Halloween party is being offered to area children Friday in what’s being hailed as “Take a Bite Out of the Night!”

“We’re putting together volunteer opportunities for kids to be involved in local and national volunteer efforts,” said Denise Landsperg, a member of the Moss Brook Church in South Paris.

The event, open to children ages 5 to 12 and their families, will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Route 26.

The idea was developed by church members to encourage young people to volunteer at the local and national level.

“Booths will be set up. For example, one will fill up a basket with fake food to introduce children to volunteering at the local Norway Episcopal church food pantry,” Landsperg explained.

Other booths will encourage children to volunteer at a nursing home by having wheelchair races between haystacks with scarecrows as riders; or playing dodge ball to simulate a war zone, simultaneously encouraging the children to write an American soldier in Iraq.

Families will leave with a list of charities and organizations that are looking for volunteers, and parents and children will be encouraged to sit down together and review the list.

“Kids get it,” said local organizer Laurie McKenney in a statement released this week. “They instinctively know that helping others is a great thing to do. Their enthusiasm and excitement can energize a whole family. Kids who are given positive opportunities to help and reach out when young are a lot more likely to do so when they grow older. Besides, something wonderful happens when families reach out together, they grow stronger,” she said

The evangelical church meets Sundays at the high school at 10 a.m. with Pastors Mike Booker and Tim Knowles.

For more information call Laurie McKenney at 336-2753.