A Halloween Lesson

Halloween never has been my holiday of choice. As an adolescent growing up in Chicago, trick-or-treating sometimes was done on very cold nights which meant we had to wear coats over our costumes. I absolutely loved getting the candy, but since those doling out the goodies couldn’t see my costume on those cold and windy nights, it never made much sense to me.

As a mother, I eventually warmed to the holiday when my sons were little, but I still had a problem with all the focus on witches and ghouls and the like. A holiday that focuses on creepy and scary things still bothers me. I was certainly delighted and relieved when my boys typically chose more “wholesome” images to imitate through their costumes.

Neighborhood Activities

Before moving back to Chicago, we lived in California and one of the neighborhoods we lived in had a neighborhood garage sale. By planning the entire block’s sale on the same day, that meant more people attending and the event was much more successful for one and all. One of my son’s operated a stand selling various goodies, taking advantage of all of the shoppers who came to our neighborhood.

One year we made the decision to give the earnings to one of our neighbors who had a child with a disability and not much money for the necessities of life. After the sale, we were delighted to present them with about $100.00 to help buy food/toiletries, etc. for the family.

Let’s do it for Halloween!

Halloween seemed like it would be perfect! Since there are lots of kids in the area we should get lots of traffic. It would be easy to promote by putting handouts/flyers in the mailboxes and on the cars all throughout the neighborhood and going a couple blocks over. It seemed like the ideal way to make more money and help more families in need! We truly expected a profitable event.

It’s Halloween!

Okay, Halloween is here!! Some of the trick-or-treaters got an early start (around dusk), especially for the smaller kids. We noticed that as it got dark we have only a few trick-or-treaters even fewer customers. One lady said she and her children would be back after they were done. We waited happily as we prepared for the blitz of customers. Guess what? The onslaught never happened.

How Did We Do?

By the end of the evening we had probably half of our typical number of trick-or-treaters. We didn’t come close to raising the funds that we thought we would. It was really a tough night for me. In looking back, I was as discouraged and disappointed as I can remember being in a long time.

The Lesson Learned

I pulled myself out of my self-imposed doldrums by taking a moment to think back on exactly what we did – and what we accomplished. The amount of money we raised (and gave away) was no longer my focus. My reflection helped me realize that a number of positive things happened:

o We had fun both planning and doing the event.

o We strengthened neighborhood relationships with the kids and adults.

o We showed our children what caring and doing things for others means-Love is Action!

o We made a memory we will last and be talked about for years to come.

o We gathered insight on what needs to change if we do this again on Halloween!

o A neighborhood family got food and other necessary items.

All the value created by the event was overshadowed in my mind when we didn’t reach our goal. I lost sight of all the benefits by focusing only on the most wanted outcome. If you had asked me the next morning if the event was a triumph, I would have grimaced and promptly said no. If you ask me today, I will say that we didn’t raise as much cash as I would have liked, but it was fun, and everyone learned a lot. Anytime you can have fun while learning something is a good experience!

We all experience defeats, challenges and disappointments. Sometimes they are large; occasionally they aren’t. Big or small, I think there is value and learning in every one of them. The objective has to be to locate those lessons and we only find them by focusing and reflecting on the experience and expecting to unearth them.

Perhaps you find yourself reeling from a setback as you read this. If so, please take the message to heart. Maybe the message is more hypothetical for you at the moment, that’s OK too. Use this as a prompt for the next time you are disheartened. Lift your head up, think about what happened, learn from it, smile and keep going forward!

I don’t know what next Halloween will bring – maybe we’ll turn it into a Harvest Fest which will certainly take the focus off ghouls and goblins and witches. At any rate, the focus will be on having fun and learning to care and do for others!

For great Halloween info and ideas…
Haunted House Tricks and Treats
http://www.amayashalloweenfun.help4amaya.com/

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