For two hours on a Friday evening in late October, a stretch of parking lot off Bangor Mall Boulevard stops being a place to leave a car and becomes a neighborhood. That is the premise behind the Mid Mall Trunk or Treat, which returns for its third year on Friday, Oct. 23, from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Mid Mall parking lot on Bangor Mall Boulevard, across from Starbucks. Admission is free, costumes are encouraged.
Trunk-or-treating is a twist on the old door-to-door ritual, and its logic is easy to grasp: instead of walking a neighborhood street in the dark, families gather in a lot where businesses and organizations have decorated the open trunks of their vehicles and set up candy stations. Kids move from trunk to trunk, the way they would from porch to porch, but the whole route sits inside a lit, contained space.
In Bangor, the version that took root is a collaboration among the businesses clustered in the Mid Mall area rather than a single sponsor's promotion. FYZICAL Therapy & Balance Centers, Valley Dental, Lamey Wellehan and KeyBank are among the hosts, with other Bangor Mid Mall businesses taking part. When the event returned for its second edition in October 2025, sponsors included FYZICAL, Lamey Wellehan, KeyBank, Computer Doctor of Maine and Valley Dental, with neighboring businesses such as AT&T, Texas Roadhouse and Jason's Pizza joining in, and food from Downtown Charcuterie's Cheese on Wheels and McPhee Concessions.
Benjamin Smith, of FYZICAL Twin City Bangor and the event's organizer, has described the gathering as something that grew out of simple neighborliness. "What started as an opportunity for neighboring businesses to come together and do something fun for local families has really grown into something special," he said ahead of this year's event. "One of my favorite things about this event is seeing businesses that might otherwise never cross paths come together for a common purpose. Everyone puts their own creative spin on their trunk, the kids have an absolute blast and we get to create a fun, safe and memorable evening for families in our community." A year earlier, he had put it more plainly: the first event "was such a hit with local families that we couldn't wait to bring it back even bigger and better."
The third edition adds a charitable layer. This year's community partner is Sarah's House of Maine, a nonprofit that provides free temporary lodging for cancer patients and their caregivers who travel to the Bangor area for treatment. Representatives will be on site collecting items from the organization's wish list, and attendees are invited to bring a donation along with their candy buckets.
The need Sarah's House addresses is specific to a rural state. The organization, based in Holden, serves patients who travel 30 miles or more to reach cancer care in the Bangor area, and it reports hosting guests from 15 of Maine's 16 counties. Stays are arranged by referral through a patient advocate at Cancer Care and come at no cost, regardless of a guest's financial resources. Since opening in 2014, Sarah's House says it has served more than 680 Maine cancer patients and spared them more than 1.3 million miles of travel, a figure that captures something easy to overlook: for many Mainers, the barrier to treatment is not the treatment itself but the drive.
Darling's Ice Cream Truck for a Cause will also be on hand, selling treats to raise money for Sarah's House. "We wanted this event to be about more than just candy and costumes," Smith said. "Sarah's House does incredible work for people during some of the most challenging times in their lives. Being able to introduce more families to their mission, collect needed supplies and help support their work adds a whole other level of meaning to this event."
Beyond the trunks and candy, the evening includes kids' games and fun activities, and family-friendly Halloween fun throughout the event area. Food and refreshments will be available for purchase from local food trucks. Participating organizations span healthcare, professional services, restaurants, real estate and nonprofits, giving families a chance to meet the businesses they might otherwise only drive past.
The event runs rain or shine in the Mid Mall parking lot, across from Starbucks. Families are encouraged to come in costume and bring a bag for collecting candy. Updates on participating businesses and Sarah's House's wish list are posted on the event's Facebook page.
There is a certain symmetry in the setting. The Mid Mall is a strip of businesses strung along Bangor Mall Boulevard, the kind of commercial corridor that people usually experience from behind a windshield. For two hours in October, it becomes a place where neighbors walk up to each other, admire a stranger's handiwork on a car trunk, and hand a child a piece of candy. The candy is the draw. The rest is the point.