WELLINGTON - Wellington's Fall Festival takes place from 5 to 10 p.m. Oct. 31 at the Village Park Gymnasium, 11700 Pierson Road.

The festival will feature a costume contest, haunted house, hay maze, hay rides, door to door trick-or-treating, face painting and there will be food available for purchase. All activities require the purchase of $10 coupon booklets or the purchase of an all- access bracelet for $20.

Nicole Evangelista, community projects manager, said she expects between 3,000 to 5,000 people to attend.

Because of budget cuts this year no one may have attended the festival, but fortunately for the village the Palms West Chamber of Commerce stepped in to help raise the money to keep the event alive.

"We're saving Halloween in Wellington. The village needed an organization to come and take a leadership role in it," said Jaene Miranda, CEO of Palms West.

Miranda said Palms West committed to raising $18,000 for the festival and she said several larger companies stepped to sponsor the festival while smaller businesses were asked to give $500.

Tom Monticello, owner of Visions Salon in Wellington, was one of those donors.

"Anything that helps the kids in wellington safe," he said. "They need a safe environment to go trick-or-treating. It's worthwhile to have something like that."