12-foot-tall skeletons do more than just scare
BUTLER TWP — The trio of gigantic skeletons in Leanne Feil’s yard at 104 Marion Drive are more than just menacing. They’re also fundraisers for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Feil has linked her display of the 12-foot-tall bony monstrosities to the nationwide Skeletons for the St. Jude campaign.
The fundraiser originated in Holly Springs, N.C., in 2020 with Jeff Robertson placing a St. Jude fundraising sign in his yard after a local TV stationed aired his skeleton Halloween display.
The effort expanded to 400 homes nationwide in 2021, according to St. Jude. As of last week, this year’s campaign included 425 houses.
In the campaign, homeowners decorate their yards in the finest of Halloween spookery, download a sign containing a QR code from the St. Jude site, print the sign and display it amid the ghoulish decorations.
Displaying the sign allows anyone visiting the display to scan the bar code and donate to St. Jude. Many have incorporated it as a central part of the their display.
For Feil and her family, husband Ed and children Chloe, 14; Eli, 11; Avery, 9; and Elliot, 5, Halloween lovers all, it seemed the perfect way to combine seasonal thrills with a chance to do good.
“We are all about Halloween. This just adds to Halloween,” Feil said.
Feil said this was the family’s first year of joining the campaign. “My mother lives in Kentucky, and she heard about it. She later sent me the link,” said Feil, who is a nurse at Butler Memorial Hospital and an events/wedding photographer.
Then, she just had to find the 12-foot-tall skeletons. She dispatched her husband to a Washington County home improvement store for one, bagged another at a Butler big-box store and got her pumpkin-headed giant through a home improvement store’s website.
She said setting the three up drew some stares from the neighborhood children.
“They are just in awe on how big they are. When we were putting them up I heard one little girl gasp. She was like, ‘Oh, my gosh,’” said Feil.
Drawing attention and getting eyes, or rather phone camera lenses, on the QR code on the accompanying sign is the aim.
Feil said as of last week, St. Jude reported the campaign has just surpassed the $69,000 mark for this year on the way to reaching the hospital’s $100,000 goal.
She added she was able to download a QR code that is specific to her location in order to keep track of donations coming from her display.
“I don’t know how many people have visited the display,” she said but so far her QR code has generated $300 out of her personal goal of $1,000.
All money goes directly to St. Jude. The Memphis, Tenn.-based hospital says 82 cents of every dollar raised goes to treatment, research and future needs of the hospital. St. Jude provides care and treatment for it child patients, meals, lodging and more for their families and toys and games so patients can feel like kids.
