The Riverdale Kiwanis Club’s Halloween-themed window painting has once again brought a (decidedly welcome) splatter of paint across local storefronts for the 57th year in a row.
Dozens of kids gathered from across the community to showcase their artistic talent on generously donated windows from area store owners.
For many families, the Kiwanis window painting event is a highly-anticipated tradition, uniting neighborhoods and schools, and allowing some of the youngest residents to leave their creative mark on the nerighborhood. The event has been around long enough some Riverdale parents can recall attending as children themselves.
“The kids sign up for free,” Virginia Krompinger, vice president of Riverdale Kiwanis and one of the event’s organizers, said. “We ask for a $30 donation from store owners, which most of them happily give. The goal isn’t to make money, just to defray the cost of the paint and supplies.”
The Chaves sisters — Nanda and Amelia, the Riverdale Kiwanis president — were praised for their dedication.
“They have done so much work every year to make this what it is,” Krompinger said.
According to Krompinger, the Chaveses have for years played an instrumental role in organizing the event, coordinating the logistics alongside a team of volunteers. A special thanks was extended to volunteers from Bronx Science, Riverdale Kingsbridge Academy, Female Fight Club’s Johanna Edmondson, Bob Rubinstein, Richard and Janet Peterson, Barbara Zentner, Farrah Rubin and many others who contributed to the day’s success.
Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz also made an appearance, visiting windows and engaging with the young artists.
While some children arrived in Halloween costumes, most were attending with a singular focus— communicating a haunting artistic vision. Their artwork was strictly Halloween-themed, interpreted through both classical symbols of the holiday — cats and ghosts — to more abstract expressionism by some of the youngest children, which might take a keen eye to understand.
Most artists were just starting out in their career, 11 years old or younger. Smaller windows were assigned to individual children, while larger storefronts were given to families.
Krompinger, whose role was to match participants with their canvas, noted some kids have been involved for years, arriving with specific requests for larger windows or particular paint colors.
“Some of them are very, very interested in getting their artistic expression out in the mode and manner that they want it,” she said.
The event continues to grow each year, with more stores and children signing up.
“We just get more and more kids every year,” Krompinger said. “If anything, we’re going to have to find a way to make this larger to support the volume of children who are interested.”
At the end of the day, all participating kids received a gift bag filled with candy.
Awards will be given to standout young artists.