Trick-or-Treat Service Drive

Consider organizing a neighborhood Service Drive this Halloween. A week or two before Halloween, deliver a flyer and paper bag on your neighbor’s doorstep, indicating you are Trick-or-Treating for a specific item — Cans, Books, Hygiene items, or Stuffed Animals, for example. Tell them when you will return to pick up the items from their doorstep to be donated to local charities.

The first time I did this was in college, when we knew we were too old to Trick or Treat, but still couldn’t shake the desire to dress up…so we went trick-or-treating for Cans, not Candy, and had great success.

Last year I got my kids involved as we organized a Trick or Treat for Books drive. We collected over 200 books ourselves, over a thousand through the whole drive.

Five Real Moms Cheri has already completed her fall drive with her kids collecting winter coats and accessories to be donated to local shelters in her area.

You can also consider collecting stuffed animals (see here), non-perishable food items, school supplies, or items for personal hygiene. A google search can help you find local agencies and phone numbers looking for donations. Other places you may want to check with include fire departments, ambulance services, police departments, children protective services, WIC programs, homeless or domestic abuse shelters, etc.