Scaring up years of good fun: Scare on the Square marks 15th anniversary

Downtown Rusk has been the place for tricks, treats and all kinds of Halloween-y good times for more than a decade now.

This year’s Scare on the Square trick or treating marks 15 years the event has taken place, thanks initially to the former Rusk Main Street organization and Rusk native Josie Fox.

“A former board member had the idea and was working on it when she had to resign when she took a job out of town,” retired Rusk Main Street Manager Martha Neely said. “Our board member contacted Josie, to keep the momentum going – and she did a tremendous job.

“I’m very pleased with the way it’s taken off and grown. It’s been a great success each year and seems like it’s going to continue to get better and better.”

Cherokeean Herald Editor and Rusk native Josie Fox, who worked at Tosh Insurance at the time, took the idea and ran with it, when she was recruited to help set it up in 2003.

“I was excited when I was asked to help with this,” Fox said. “At the time I had a young nephew who was frightened of the dark and the Halloween masks, so I thought this was a great project to get behind.

“I felt like it would give families a safer alternative to trick or treating door to door, in the dark, like we used to do, as well as give our local businesses a chance to open their doors, so to speak, to the community.”

Fox remembers the first year 11 businesses on and around the square signed up to participate, including Tosh Insurance, J&J Jewelry, the Cherokee Appraisal District, Citizens 1st Bank, State Farm Insurance, Wallace Thompson Hardware, Chapman’s Pharmacy, Whitehead Enterprises, the Thomas J. Rusk Hotel, the Sweet Shoppe Rock and the Iron Horse Mercantile.

“Several other businesses participated, too, but those were the ones that officially signed up,” Fox said. “I basically just walked the square and asked who’d be interested – everyone I talked to was excited to participate.”

The event has grown every year since its inception.

“Even in its second year, it grew so much,” Fox recalled. “I’m ecstatic it’s lasted this long and garnered the participation it has over the years. I’m proud our community has this to enjoy every year.”

The Rusk Chamber of Commerce took the event over in 2004, but it didn’t get its official moniker, ‘Scare on the Square,’ until a couple of years ago.

“We’re inviting everyone to come out,” Chamber of Commerce Manager Tara Tatarski said. “And we encourage everyone to dress up in their Halloween best.”

This year’s event starts at 4 p.m. and lasts until the candy runs out and features a free haunted office tour, sponsored by Sinclair & King law office on the north side of the square; a bounce house; Spooktacular Halloween portraits by Heather Beck photography, benefitting this year’s RHS Senior Finale; train rides; carnival games, sponsored by the Rusk Band Boosters organization; and of course, all the treats a kid can collect, from a myriad of Rusk businesses, clubs and individuals.

Fifth and Henderson streets will be closed to through traffic during the event.