Halloween Fun – Making a difference! 

Like many of you we have spent the last few weeks searching for the perfect Halloween costume. For my daughter and I this also is a time of excitements as we get ready for our 3^trd annual Trick or Treat for Canned Goods Food Drive.  3 years ago my daughter and I found ourselves throwing away much of the candy she had collected while out Trick or Treating. What a waste I thought. It got me thinking; I knew I had read articles about other kids taking Halloween as an opportunity to collection donations for other organizations.  Scared that my then 5 yr old daughter would think I was crazy, I threw out the idea of “Trick or Treating for Canned Goods” instead of candy.  To my surprise she bit, in fact she was so excited that she couldn’t wait for the following Halloween to get started.  

Now let me explain –I know it isn’t normal for a 5 yr old to take so easily to an idea like this, but as a self proclaimed Volunteer Addict I had already exposed my daughter to volunteering through helping out at the local food shelters and just toting her around when ever I was out doing community work. To my surprise it took and she couldn’t wait to help out the people from the shelter.  For others this might be a great idea for kids that are 3 – 5^th grade that still enjoy dressing up but don’t need all the candy and junk to go along with it.   

• Our plan is simple and the results were amazing.  Each year we have increased our donations collected and each year my daughter gets more and more excited to beat the year before.  The first year we received an overwhelmingly positive response from the 2 neighborhoods that we included in our Trick Or Treat Food Drive.  In all we collected over 800 lbs of food to donate to our local Food Pantry.  That is right 800 lbs from around 100 houses collected from.  The second year, people were looking out for our donation bags and eager to help again.  In the second year we were able to increase our donations to 985 lbs .  WOW we had no idea what a success this idea would turn out to be.               Our Scary Simple Plan to Make a Difference!

1. Select a fun Halloween Costume
2. Create a Spooky flyer
   1. Update everyone on your goals and what you are doing
   2. Detail the times you will be picking up donations on Halloween night
   3. Detail a wish list of donation items
   4. Information on where the items will be donated – a great way to tell people about other opportunities to volunteer with their family
   5. List a phone number to contact if they have questions
3. Get Paper Grocery Bags from a local Grocery Store (our local Family Fare – Spartan Store) was happy to help
4. Staple the flyers to the exterior of the bags
5. Deliver the bags to the houses you have selected to visit on Halloween night. (you can either hang them on the doors or put them nicely into mailboxes)
6. LAST BUT DEFINITELY NOT LEAST – Head out for a fun night of Trick or Treating and collect all the donations.

• Make it a family event – Parents this is where you will be a big help but make this a family event.  My daughter now 7 helps with all the preparation from making the flyer to delivering them to the houses (about a week ahead of Halloween) The day we deliver is a great day out walking around the neighborhood and dropping off the bags house by house, it really adds to her excitement in anticipation for Halloween night. On Halloween night you will need a vehicle ideally a Van, SUV or Truck.  My hubby has taken on the role of driver while my daughter and I travel house to house Trick or Treating for Canned Goods and quickly gathering them into the back of our SUV.   Every year we find more and more people asking about what we are doing and we hope that in years to come we will see more kids out hitting the streets and helping their community through a TRICK OR TREAT for Canned Goods Food drive of their own.

We hope that we have inspired each of you to think outside of yourselves on an every day basis and take time to help those around you.  Please remember that there are so many people less fortunate then us and that you can make a difference.

Have a Spooktacular time!

Halloween really is a great opportunity to help your kids use there imagination and creativity, but it can also be a great opportunity for your kids to do something GREAT to help others.

For great Costume ideas or more ways to make your Halloween fun visit our page http://trendytip.com/category/hip-home-maker/ or click below:

Popularity: 24% [?]

Technorati Tags: family, food drive, food shelters, halloween, halloween costume, halloween fun, ideas, information, kids, local food pantry, volunteer