Patti Slavtcheff and Cathy Cassar combine a wacky enthusiasm for Halloween with a big-hearted desire to give back to the community. These two friends have again joined forces to organize the second annual Guilford Art Center Adult Halloween Costume Party, to be held on Saturday, October 30, 7-11pm at a location to be announced.

Why should kids have all the fun? This year's bash will once again feature yummy appetizers, beer and wine, a dance music DJ, a silent auction of artworks and other great items, and prizes for best costumes.

But guests can have a great time just standing around: last year's attendees were hoarse from laughter at the costumed revelers, which included an authentic geisha, the Wolfman, Amelia Earhart and at least one cop. Cathy's Marie Antoinette gown was hand-sewn and embellished and featured a jury-rigged bustle engineered from hula hoops. Patti put together her dead bride of Frankenstein getup with an ebay-purchased wedding gown, "dead-eye" contacts, and enough stage makeup to render this attractive redhead unrecognizable. They and a small army of volunteers transformed the Trailblazer building (last year's location) into a spooky cave festooned with screaming ghouls, bats, webs and other creepy, dry-ice-spewing apparatus everywhere you looked.

Cathy and her husband have three kids who love Halloween as much as she does. "It's great dressing up, walking down everyday streets that seem mysterious with little monsters, princesses and super heroes," she says. "Patti and I wanted to throw a party so we had a reason to make really fabulous costumes. We thought it would be nice to benefit a local organization. The Art Center was perfect because it is such a part of Guilford and its artistic mission fits with the fantastical nature of the holiday."

Halloween fever hit Patti during the time she and her husband and five sons were living in Tokyo. "The Japanese do not traditionally celebrate it, but our neighborhood was one of the few that attracted trainloads of kids," says Patti, "We put out scream ghosts, mummies, and strings of hands in our bushes. At one point, when a group of preschoolers were on a 'tour,' I couldn't resist: as they edged along in front of my house, I hid under a window. As the teachers were attempting to convince them that the ghost was not real, I gave out the loudest blood curdling yell I could muster! I fell on the floor laughing, I had tears in my eyes." Her family gave out a thousand pieces of candy and was beloved in the community for introducing this fun-filled tradition.

The GAC party is a fun and too-rare opportunity for grown ups to express their creativity and cut-loose, all the while supporting the Center's own creative and educational programs. In Patti's apt appraisal, "It's the perfect marriage of need and madness."

Guilford Art Center Second Annual Adult Halloween Costume Party
Proceeds benefit Guilford Art Center
Saturday, October 30, 7-11pm