“It’s all about the kids and the candy. But I’m very excited about the scares, too. Their little faces!”
What starts with balloons and ends with bubbles—punctuated by scores of scares and tons of treats? An interactive Halloween extravaganza for the three dozen children and their families at a Way Finders’ residential resource center (family shelter program). Cue the creepy soundtrack and fog machine!
Plans of the spooky-cute variety have been afoot since September, per Program Manager II Christie Bosley, who collaborated with Case Managers Phillicia Arthurton and Alexys Garrafa and Residential Advocates Jordan Feliciano, Christian Pollock, and Sil Vega to create a haunted house of sorts for the children at their program. Invitations were also sent to some families living in Way Finders’ scattered sites, which are emergency housing units located at different properties in the area.
“It’s all about the kids and the candy. But I’m very excited about the scares, too. Their little faces!” said Bosley. “We usually have some form of trick or treating here, since it’s not exactly the safest neighborhood for kids to go out and about. This year, it started as a little idea, like ‘Hey, let’s put some decorations up.’ And then it just kept growing from there, with staff getting excited about having the kids walk through the apartment. We’d find ourselves in Dollar Tree with a cart, asking, ‘Do we need more spiders?’ I ordered one that crawls, I hope it comes in time.”
The spooky tour kicks off outside with kids passing through an arch of balloon art. Upon pressing a special doorbell—which activates a big eyeball—trick-or-treaters are warned, “Enter at your own risk.” Inside are decorations and lights, witches and ghosts, toys and flashlights. Unexpected shadows. Things that jump and go bump! Plus, a cotton candy machine, a popcorn machine, and other refreshments.
“It’s going to be so exciting. We’ve got a walking hand, and one of those candy bowls that the arm comes out,” said Bosley. “As they walk to the different candy bowls down the hall, it’ll be nice and spooky, we’ll give them a couple scares. My costume is a little intense, so I might have to take it down a notch. But I don’t know if I really want to. We have staff members going as Ghostbusters, a witch, the Scream.”
“We are trying to make it as fun as possible. Program managers have full discretion, as far as parties like this for the families, to do whatever they want to do. And the staff really get involved,” said Director of Residential Programs Nicky LaValley. “And it makes it feel more like home. For the kids, it takes away from the fact, for even just a short time, like an hour or two, that they’re in a shelter and not in their own homes. Christie has quite a few Haitian families, so some of them probably have not experienced what Halloween is in the United States.”
The effort is a morale boost for staff, too, whose everyday roles involve helping families work toward their housing plans and goals and adhere to the program’s curfew and other requirements.
“Staff are often helping families deal with trauma, so they’re living through and hearing a lot about traumatic events,” said Bosley. “Something like this Halloween gathering is uplifting, it’s positive. Staff aren’t bringing bad news. It’s a chance to show another side of ourselves, while sharing in an enjoyable event. You know, these are the things you’d do when you’re in an apartment or a house.”
“The way they have the hallway decorated, it’s just amazing,” said LaValley. “The staff have also donated a lot of their own money to do this.”
“We’re already like, ‘What’s next?’ A lot of the things that we got we can use for other holidays, like the lights. So, we tried to be fiscally prudent while being fun at the same time,” said Bosley. “I want to thank all the case managers and residential advocates, the credit here is theirs.”
Postscript
We checked in with Bosley on November 1 to ask this question: “How did it go?”
“It went very well. The kids were dodging scares—and then giggling while snatching up candy. And you could tell the parents were happy to have a place to bring them, especially those who came from other parts of the state and are still figuring out the ins and outs of Springfield,” said Bosley. “Plus, staff were able to be big kids ourselves!”