Ghouls for Good gives out free Halloween costumes
For those still young enough — or young-at-heart enough — to go trick-or-treating this Halloween, dressing up is surprisingly expensive.
At Spirit Halloween, for example, boys-sized costumes can range from $30 to $60, all for something to be worn for only one night.
There are other options, however. On Monday afternoon, Oct. 16, the Butler County Young Professionals hosted the eighth annual Ghouls for Good event in the gymnasium of Butler Cubs hall, where parents picked out costumes for their young ones free.
Kristen Kane, founder of the event, said she took inspiration from Christmas toy drives and applied it to spooky season.
“I love Halloween, and there just weren't any Halloween costume drives, and Halloween costumes are expensive,” Kane said. “I thought that it would be helpful to children. And as you can see, there's a lot of kids here.”
Although the event officially started at 4 p.m., families were wandering the gymnasium at least 30 minutes earlier, picking through the many costumes on display, which ranged from superheroes to Halloween monsters and everything in between.
“Our whole Butler County Young Professionals organization works on this pretty much year-round,” Kane said. “So today, we got here early, and we got everything set up, all the costumes sorted.”
The costumes were paid for largely though money from the event’s sponsors, which included Armstrong, NexTier Bank and Butler County Community College. Other costumes came from organizations that held their own costume drives.
Lori Dofner came to look for a costume for her daughter, Abbey Gottron. This was her only realistic option of doing so.
“I’m just in-between jobs. I lost one unexpectedly,” Dofner said. “She wants a costume for trick-or-treating. She wanted a dragon or something, she thinks, but she’s not sure.”
Kane says the Ghouls for Good event has evolved considerably since it was founded in 2016. In fact, the first year of the event more closely resembled a donation drive than the free storefront that it would eventually become.
“The first year, we didn’t know what we were getting ourselves into,” Kane said. “We had bins that went out to different businesses throughout the county, and people could drop their costumes there. And then we basically just gave (Children & Youth Services) everything that we came into.”
According to Kane, the first event was such a success with the public that it expanded the following year and held its first in-person storefront at the Clearview Mall.
Since then, although it has changed venues, the event has remained largely unchanged, with the exception of 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Young Professionals gave costumes away on an individual, by-request basis that year.
After picking up their costumes, attendees could pick up a little extra on their way out the door — a goodie bag with candy, cookies, and coupons for free meals at local restaurants.
“They can get a free meal at Eat'n Park. They can get some treats at Dairy Queen for free. They can get treats from McDonald's for free,” Kane said.
