{"id":1472,"date":"2014-10-17T05:29:10","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T09:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=1472"},"modified":"2014-10-16T22:39:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T02:39:09","slug":"eakfest-returns-to-brick-friday-saturday-with-haunted-fun-and-a-great-cause","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2014\/10\/eakfest-returns-to-brick-friday-saturday-with-haunted-fun-and-a-great-cause\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Eakfest’ Returns to Brick Friday, Saturday With Haunted Fun and a Great Cause"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Eakfest<\/a>

Eakfest (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cEakfest\u201d is back for the seventh year and better than ever, organizers say!<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely blowing away all the other years, no doubt,\u201d said Alicia Eak,whose once-backyard Halloween party has evolved into a township tradition. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be awesome!\u201d<\/p>\n

Eakfest was first organized back in 2007, months after Alicia\u2019s daughter Jackie, then 12, was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis. With so much going on and so many worries to think about, the Eak family wasn\u2019t sure if hosting the annual Halloween party was a good idea, but Jackie said it was one of the highlights of her year \u2013 so there was no saying no.<\/p>\n

The Halloween party, which attracted more than 100 people, had already grown out of the family\u2019s backyard, which spurred an idea: expand the party even more and use it as a fundraiser to support cystic fibrosis research. Over the next seven years, Eakfest has grown by leaps and bounds, now rivaling \u2013 if not surpassing \u2013 some of the largest haunted hayrides and Halloween events in New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\"Eakfest<\/a>

Eakfest (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

This year\u2019s event will likely be the biggest ever. The haunted trail has been expanded, a kiddy carnival and less-scary hay ride for kids and families has returned, and this year three Jersey Shore bands \u2013 Sekond Skyn, Commonwealth and The Red Desert \u2013 will be playing throughout the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe trail changes up every year,\u201d Eak explained. \u201cA lot of the other haunted trails, they do the same thing every year. At ours, because it\u2019s all volunteers doing their own thing, there\u2019s always something new. They managed to take the same haunted trail and make it longer and bigger somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eakfest<\/a>

Eakfest (File Photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

The most important part of the event, of course, is the fight against Cystic Fibrosis. The good news: Jackie is now 19, in college in New York City, and doing well health-wise, as the Eak family continues to raise funds in the quest for a cure, to which researchers are coming ever-so-close<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we raised $15,000,\u201d said Eak. The previous two years raised over $10,000 each.<\/p>\n

Eakfest is held at the Pioneer Hose Fire Company, 312 Drum Point Road, Brick, from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday and 3 to 10 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s event will come complete with snacks, including hot chocolate, and on Saturday, more food will be available from Mike\u2019s Pizza.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe comes in and makes pizza, sandwiches and all that good stuff,\u201d said Eak.<\/p>\n

There will also be food cooked up on the grille from Pioneer Hose\u2019s volunteer firefighters and funnel cakes from the Lion\u2019s Club.<\/p>\n

The haunted trail costs $5 for kids 17 and under, and $10 for adults. An all-age \u201cjump to the front\u201d Eakfest pass is $20. The \u201cnon-scary\u201d hay rides cost $5.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEakfest\u201d is back for the seventh year and better than ever, organizers say! \u201cIt\u2019s definitely blowing away all the other years, no doubt,\u201d said Alicia Eak,whose once-backyard Halloween party has evolved into a township tradition. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be awesome!\u201d Eakfest was first organized back in 2007, months after Alicia\u2019s daughter Jackie, then 12, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[24,427,428],"class_list":["post-1472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-eakfest","tag-halloween-2014"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Screen-Shot-2014-10-16-at-10.35.51-PM.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-nK","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}