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Saturday, October 23, 2010

A Helpful Halloween

It's hard to believe that Halloween is already here! I know at our house, that means we begin to anticipate a night full of costume fun and LOTS of candy.
So, since I know you are all wondering what in the world to do with all those sweets....

I have an idea for you!!

We are leaving for Ghana in three weeks, and will be spending most of our week visiting children who are still working as slaves on Lake Volta, as well as children who live in extreme poverty on the islands there.

They have nothing.

And, while we are planning to deliver mosquito nets, clothing, and medication to these families, we would also love to let them "be kids" like they so greatly deserve to be.

We need candy. LOTS of candy.

It can't be chocolate, because it will obviously melt in African temperatures.

But, it CAN be laffy taffy, tootsie roll pops, dum dums, smarties, sweet-tarts, and all the other things you get door after door after door next weekend.

If you are interested in collecting candy for us, and you live in the DFW area, we would love to fill a suitcase with the goodies! If you are able to contribute, email me at chelsea@hischase.org to find out who you can give it to. (We have someone in every area of the metroplex ready to be a candy packer for us!) And, thank you for passing along a little moment of happiness to these kids across the world. Oh, how a laffy taffy can bring a smile. :)

And, one other thought that I wanted to pass along on having a Helpful Halloween.

Our family certainly enjoys a good service project, especially at holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, I have NEVER even considered Halloween an opportunity to serve. I don't know why, since I'm going door to door all over the neighborhood.

But, a curriculum that I love, called Kids With Purpose, had the greatest idea that we will be doing with our own kids this year.

As you go to the neighbors' houses, carry an extra sack with you, and see if they would consider donating a canned good, in addition to the loads of sweets they are ready to shell out. I know I would gladly share my unused cans of peas or beans with a cute little fairy or pirate!

And, by the end of your trick-or-treating evening, you could have quite a donation for the hungry in our city.
Isn't that genius? Why didn't I think of that before?

I sure hope we have piles of this on Sunday:
Instead of mountains of this:
Well, actually, I want both. Because it can ALL be used for a good purpose this year!

Happy Helpful Halloween!!

7 comments:

Jennifer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jennifer said...

okay, not sure what I did to my comment.

I would love to donate our candy to you. Do you have anyone in the Keller area that I could get it to? Also, I like the idea of getting canned goods while trick-or-treating. We will for sure be doing that! Do you mind if I put that idea on my blog that I recently started - doing acts of kindness with my boys? (www.simpleactsforkids.blogspot.com)

mcjacobsjournal said...

Jennifer,
Thank you for passing your candy along!! I haven't asked her yet, but I'm hoping that Alyssa will be my candy collector in that area. :) Send me your email and I'll keep you posted on that plan.

And, YES, I would love for you to share the ideas! I can't wait to check that blog out! What a great idea.

Sarah Erwin said...

Wonderful idea!! I totally want to do something like that here!!!

Jennifer said...

jennifer.ogle1@verizon.net

I'll send an email out to some other friends too to see if they want to give their unwanted candy to me as well. I don't live far from Alyssa so I can for sure get that to her.

Have a good day!

Alyssa said...

I didn't check blogs for a couple of days and look what I missed!!! :) Alyssa is very happy to be your candy collector!!! What a great idea!! Chels, call me and we will make a plan! Love you!

Sarah P said...

Great idea! We're doing "Trick or Treat So They Can Eat" with our youth group on Halloween. Door-to-door asking for canned good donations instead of candy. Although, I'm bringing along my precious 2 year old Elmo...so I'm sure he'll pick up some candy along the way:)