Collecting Halloween candy has never felt better.
As the weather (finally) begins to cool and thoughts turn to pumpkin spice and apple picking, the days can fill up fast. Whether you’re shuttling your kids to and from school and after-school activities, putting up Halloween decorations, or already planning for Thanksgiving and beyond (if that’s you, we’re impressed), it can be hard to find moments to think outside of yourself and your family. Incorporating kindness and service into these increasingly busy days can feel like a burden, but it doesn’t have to be. You just have to break it down into digestible pieces — like fun-size Halloween candy! Speaking of Halloween, that’s a perfect place to start. Target the jubilant holiday as your giving goal, and it’ll feel more achievable.
While Halloween is considered a holiday for children, it has increasingly become another opportunity for adults to decorate, bake, gather, and celebrate. Whether there are children in your home or you’re enjoying an empty nest, here’s how you can share the sweetness of Halloween and these cooler autumn days with people in need in your community.
Donate costumes for kids
In the weeks leading up to Halloween, consider hosting a costume donation drive or swap event in your community. Sort through your own family’s closets and toy boxes for gently used, out-grown costumes to donate. Children navigating the foster care system, asylum seekers, and kids living in homeless and domestic violence shelters are often in need of costumes and have limited ways to celebrate the holiday.
Trick or treat for UNICEF
Encourage the children in your life to Trick or Treat for UNICEF, collecting change in addition to sweet treats. The Trick or Treat for UNICEF program was started by a woman named Mary Emma Allison in 1950. Allison encouraged her children to go door-to-door collecting nickels and dimes in decorated milk cartons with the goal of sending a donation to aid children in post-World War II Europe. That Halloween night, Allison’s children collected $17. In 1953, the US Fund for UNICEF began actively promoting the program and created the ubiquitous orange collection boxes. Over the years, the program has raised over $188 million worldwide to help children and families who are displaced and experiencing hardship after natural disasters and conflict. If you see a child with a UNICEF box, be sure to donate a few coins. If your own children or grandchildren would like to participate, UNICEF provides lots of resources like a printable wrapper to create your own collection box and a door hanger that can be colored and displayed on your front door. They also provide information about starting your own online fundraiser.
Collect treats for troops
Wondering what to do with all of that leftover candy on November 1 (so you and your family don’t eat it all)? Soldiers’ Angels Treats for Troops is a Halloween candy collection program where local businesses and organizations register to collect excess Halloween candy and send it in care packages to our active duty service men and women. Soldier’s Angels provides a searchable database of local VA hospitals, bases, and guard and reserve units waiting to receive the candy that collection sites can ship to them directly. For families or individuals with leftover candy, you can search the “candy map” on the Soldiers’ Angels website to find a local donation site. Not participating in trick-or-treating? Soldiers’ Angels provides an opportunity to create candy bags for soldiers any time of year.
Raise awareness
October is also a month full of “awareness” dates. If you’ve been paying attention to social media, the news, and, of course, Wake-Up Call, you’ve probably noticed that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It is also Domestic Violence Awareness Month, ADHD Awareness Month, Bullying Prevention Month, and Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month. For anyone touched by any of these challenges (and everyone reading this has surely been touched by one or more of them), October provides a good opportunity to raise awareness and support organizations that provide resources and assistance around these issues. If you’re not sure where to start, arm yourself with all the info you can about each cause. Our guide to breast cancer and brands that give back to breast cancer research are good places to start.
Participate in Make a Difference Day
The fourth Saturday of October was designated as National Make a Difference Day in 1992 by USA Weekend Magazine in partnership with The Points of Light Foundation, a national nonprofit focused on encouraging volunteerism. It’s a day that aims to inspire people from all walks of life to step up, take action, and make a positive difference in their communities. Whether through hands-on volunteering, organizing charitable projects, or engaging in acts of kindness, National Make a Difference Day encourages people to be intentional about contributing their time, resources, and skills to address social justice issues facing their community. If you have been looking for an opportunity to kick-start your community service efforts, Make a Difference Day is it! Working together, we can all make a positive impact on our communities and set an example for future generations.
Natalie Silverstein, MPH, is a writer, speaker, nonprofit founder, and passionate advocate for family and youth service. She is the author of two books on volunteering, Simple Acts: The Busy Family’s Guide to Giving Back and Simple Acts: The Busy Teen’s Guide to Making a Difference; and the host of the award-winning podcast, Simple Acts, Big Impact: Celebrating Teen Changemakers. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook at @simpleactsguide.
