Happy Halloween, everyone! Halloween is all about tricks and treats, but it’s also a great holiday to give back and help others. Here are eight ways you can scare up support for some great causes.
1. Trick or Treat for Unicef. Trick or treat for UNICEF has been around for over 60 years. It’s too late to order UNICEF’s signature cardboard donation boxes, but don’t despair. You can make your own canister. The important thing is to ask people to give.
2. Support a Food Drive. Halloween has become a big holiday for food drives. In my neighborhood, vampires and zombies will be duking it out for dominance! Just kidding. It will actually be Boy Scouts and some kids from a local college collecting canned goods Still, those scouts can be tough! Check your local newspaper for groups that are collecting in your area.
3. Visit a Spirit Halloween Store. If you have a pop-up Halloween store in your community, there’s a good chance it’s a Spirit Halloween store. They have over 1,000 stores and every one of them raises money for children’s hospitals across the United States. Since the program began in 2006, the Spirit of Children has raised $11 million.
4. Watch the World Series. If the World Series goes to seven games, the final game will be played on Halloween! The World Series has had a lot of cause components. Fox correspondent Ken Rosenthal has been promoting BowTieCause.com. During Sunday night’s game, MasterCard donated $4 million a Stand Up to Cancer. MasterCard will continue to make a one cent donation to SU2C when cardholders spend $10 or more for a meal through the end of the year. The goal is to raise an additional $4 million.
5. Buy a Coffin. I love these monks in Louisiana. They make and sell wooden coffins. The money they make supports their abbey. When funeral homes objected, the monks took their case to court and won. They make their own money, and when someone tried to take it away they battled back. We should reward their resourcefulness, spirit and courage. I hope you don’t need a coffin. But if you do, call the monks.
6. Wear a Costume for a Cause. Visit a Chipotle on Halloween dressed in costume after 4pm, and you can get a BOO-rito for $3. All proceeds up to $1 million will benefit the Chipotle Cultivate Foundation. Support the scarecrows, not the crows!
7. Help Kids in Africa See the Next Solar Eclipse. Looking for something to collect money for on Halloween? Ask your neighbors to help you buy eclipse glasses for kids in Africa. Astronomers Without Borders is hoping to send 42,000 eclipse glasses to Africa for a solar eclipse on November 2nd.
8. Share an Anti-Bullying Message with Your Candy Bags. The nonprofit willUstand has Halloween-themed anti-bullying messages you can drop in trick-or-treaters’ bags this year. Just be sure to include some candy with them, or you could be the one getting bullied!
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