On Sunday, members of 13 churches came together under the shadow of town founder Henry Miller's statue to offer an alternative to Halloween. </p><p>"Harvest of Fun" at Henry Miller Plaza served up food, fun, games, candy, music and a sense of community.</p><p>"It's an opportunity to outreach and bless our community," said Steve Hammond, pastor of Bethel Community Church. </p><p>Hammond was the event's primary organizer. </p><p>"The purpose of this is, number one, to get the kids off the streets," said Hammond. "It's a safe place for Halloween. It's a safe place for families to come and there will be nothing offensive here. They don't have to fear about the candy they're gonna get."</p><p>Hammond briefly laid out the history of the event.</p><p>"It started seven years ago with just three churches and a couple hundred people, and we've just kinda added churches every year," he said. "Last year we had eight churches and we had about 1,500 people come through. This year we have 13 churches involved and we're expecting 2,000 people."</p><p>According to Hammond, as public events go, this one was not too demanding.</p><p>"This is an easy event," he said. "I organize the main planning, I recruit the churches and I lay them out. I just organize and make sure everybody's in the right place and all the needs are met.</p><p>"Every church just kind of sets up their own booths -- and everything is free. We give everybody that comes in a hot dog and a bottle of water and they also get raffle tickets. We have drawings every few minutes and we give away raffle prizes all night. Every booth has candy and things they give away. The churches pitch in together. There's 13 churches and they each pitch in $100. That rents the plaza. That buys all the hot dogs, all the water, all the candy."</p><p>The participating churches set up all manner of booths this year. There were games of skill where everyone won something, there were beanbag tosses, bounce houses, a large slide and numerous other activities for the kids. Gideons International handed out free Bibles, and there was a prayer booth where people could participate in decidedly non-traditional Halloween activities.</p><p>At the booth run by Oasis Community Center, Ray Corona dressed up as Goliath, complete with armor, sword and flowing robe. Children who came to the Oasis booth were given a slingshot and three marshmallows with which they were encouraged to try to re-create the biblical scene in First Samuel where David beans Goliath in the forehead, thus defeating the Philistine Army. </p><p>The marshmallows offered a less-than-lethal alternative to rocks, thus saving Corona from a Halloween martyrdom. The kids were happy because each of them received a handful of candy whether or not they hit Goliath.</p><p>Ed Ram, a pastor with Grace Fellowship International Church, was very happy with the event.</p><p>"It's not, quote, just a church thing," said Ram who had come with 20 volunteers from his church. "It's a community event and I love it. I really love it.</p><p>"The families have come together and just the atmosphere of excitement and thanksgiving. They call it a Harvest Festival and harvest is considered a time of reaping in the blessings and the abundance that the Lord's blessed us with. And I'm just seeing how God's touching our community," he said. "I'm grateful that the community can come out and just enjoy themselves and not get caught up in the religious politics of it all. We're all the body of Christ and we all love the Lord."</p><p>Earlier, Hammond had expressed a similar sentiment.</p><p>"There's no controversy; there's no fighting," he said. "Having our churches involved, it really brings our community together. It's a place that we can come -- no politics involved, no junk involved -- we just come and we have a good time. I think that's what the people of Los Banos want."</p><p>Enthusiasm about the event was not limited to the pastors and church members. Epifania Huddin who brought her daughter Carmen Rodriquez and great-granddaughter Janet Mena said, "I loved it. I have lupus. I'm a very sick person and I haven't felt sick all day." </p><p>Janet, her 9-year-old great-granddaughter, showed equal enthusiasm.</p><p>"I thought it was so awesome and I wanna come next year," she said. I just thought it was the bestest time of my life."