I LOVE Halloween. I mean I LOVE Halloween so much that I told my parents I wanted a Halloween Party over a Sweet 16 Party! It’s true; I passed up on a Sweet 16 birthday bash for a Halloween party.
One of the perks of being a parent is you get to go through Halloween again by way of your children’s eyes. I’ve been fortunate enough to give my children Halloween with candy and special costumes they get to pick out or I make for them. As parents we know ‘the Halloween costume’ is such a big deal for our kiddos. Going to pick out their costume is huge and can take days, or a couple of exchanges to acquire just the right one.
Nevertheless, not everyone has the luxury to go on a Halloween costume-shopping trip. In 2008 the warm heart of 11-year-old Emma Rose Shapiro while sorting through her old costumes realized not all children had the opportunity to receive a new costume. Emma decided to take action and created Halloween Helpers.
Emma’s goals: enlist children who outgrow or become disinterested in previous years’ costumes to share them with kids who would not typically receive costumes.
- Raise awareness, and gain empathy, among her peers that there are children who do not participate in Halloween. Halloween Helpers has put over 3000 costumes in the hands of deserving children and helped create memories.
This year {2012} Emma would still like to continue The Halloween Helpers. However, in order to do so, she feels that this idealistic program needs to become a full-fledged 501c3 to receive widespread acceptance, and legitimacy and to perpetuate her long-term vision. Her goal was not just to collect and distribute costumes for a few hours of enjoyment. Rather, her original intention was, and still is, to distribute the costumes and hold costume parades/parties in local community centers. This will ensure that children have a safe place to show off their costumes and trick-or-treat in a positive, secure environment.
However, in order to do so, she needs to raise $1,700.00 for costly government application fees. She has turned to Indiegogo, an online crowd-sourcing fundraising tool, for help.
The $1,700.00 Emma Rose hopes to raise through her online fundraising campaign will help pay for all of the government application and attorney fees related to this effort.
These include (but are not limited to): a state and national name search; filing PA Department of State incorporation papers; obtaining a 501c3 status from the IRS; and placing legally required advertisements about the incorporation of The Halloween Helpers in legal journals and general circulation newspapers.
I ask you all to help out Emma Rose and check out the Halloween Helpers website, as well as please make a donation to Emma Rose’s Indiegogo fundraising page.
