Thread: Trick or Treat at the Facility?

Have you ever done a fun Halloween event, like a costume party or trick or treat for the little ones?

It seems that self-storage facilities really lend themselves well to Halloween. It could be a great time to open yourself up to the community (new tenants?) a little more and to have a little fun.

If you have a story or photos about events like this, post them here! We'd love to see them!

We've already started on the treats! And we will be in costume starting the Thursday leading up to Halloween.

We won't be doing anything for the kiddies though. We had thought about doing a Haunted House in our new buildings but weren't sure about the overall feel of that ... We weren't sure how someone would feel if they saw a ghost running in our building through the windows as they drove by. Some people are nervous enough as it is in a storage facility.

Ogden has several random fundraising events going on this year. A family friendly halloween party for cancer awareness where we'll give out treat bags with coupons. There's another one for 21+ called fear fest with a costume contest we sponsored that we'll be attending also. It's an after party for the Zombie Crawl/Zombie Prom earlier that day and benefits juvenile diabetes.

Next year, all these things want to band together and have a big halloween week in downtown Ogden. We're pretty excited! Halloween is my favorite

I had thought about doing "something" for Halloween (and Christmas, too) at this facility but when I posed the idea to some tenants, they all said that their kids/grandkids didn't "go around" to places. Around here the biggie is "Trunk or Treat" which, for anyone who hasn't heard of this practice, is where folks go to their church and dispense treats from the trunks of their cars. Since the environment is so controlled, apparently folks feel there's less opportunity for bad things to happen.

I then found out that the town and local vendors organize a Halloween event where the shops along Main Street dispense treats to the kiddies. I inquired about having our facility included and learned that we're considered too far out and can't participate. Seems the only shops that participate are within a 3 block linear stretch of the town's center to which the children walk from a "stagging" point. In fact, the shops down the side streets don't participate - just the straight run in the center of this little town.

After having observed how parents/caregivers don't watch their kids and loosing count of the number of times I've had to go speak to the adult about the child's behaviour or them wandering unsupervised all over the place when here getting stuff from a unit or using our car wash (don't get me started on that one!), I decided hosting an on-site event might put us in a potentially legally liable position if anything were to happen to a child attending something we're sponsoring and that isn't part of the normal business operation.

Yes, like you Palmetto, our merchants around the town square offer trick-or-treating. It is very popular and it's fun to see all those cute kiddos.

But here at the facility, no way, too scary and full of liability issues.

Our community has a yearly Event called Halloween in the Park. It is a very fun filled day with costume contests, food vendors, live music etc. Any business that wants to participate is welcome. You have to pay a small price for a Table/Booth. Some bring tents. Each Business has treats and the kids come around (with their parents) and Trick or Treat at your business booth. This event is extremely successful and very FUN!! Some businesses even set up carnival type games or spinning wheels. The Community Center puts it together. The Police and Fire Dept are there with the big Fire Truck.

I love this event because so many businesses participate and it is a very unique opportunity to network not only with other businesses, but customers and their kids as well....

And usually they have about 3000 in attendence!

We don't do anything here. This year, especially, I just hired a new assistant, so there is no way I could have gotten everything together in time.

My sister facility does trick or treat every year. They are right across the street from an elementary school, so they will do it Friday afternoon right after school. They decorate many vacant units and have volunteers that come in to sit in the units and hand out candy and little toys. She gives the volunteers each a $25 gift certificate for something they like, and she always has a great response.

They also have one "booth" set up where they have a background all set up and they offer photos. That is also very popular.

They have a lot of fun. For me, this year it exhausts me just to think about hosting something like that!

When we had a bunch of kids on our block we did a little party for them. We did a pinata for them. And we were doing some landscaping changes so we were able to have a bunch a graves that the kids had to dig up for prizes like kites and such.

We are doing our 1st Sp00ktacular Jr. Creepers Carnival. Totally free to kids of all ages. We will be having a Scary Scavenger Hunt, Creepy Costume Contest along with several other small games and a costume contest. We have a local sherriff doing a quick talk on why it's important to have mom and dad check out the candy they get and a local pizza place is giving us coupons for a free slice and soda. We have been waiving our admin fee for candy donations and many of the local businesses are donating time, candy or prizes. Looking forward to seeing all the kids!

Originally Posted by MRDye

We are doing our 1st Sp00ktacular Jr. Creepers Carnival. Totally free to kids of all ages. We will be having a Scary Scavenger Hunt, Creepy Costume Contest along with several other small games and a costume contest. We have a local sherriff doing a quick talk on why it's important to have mom and dad check out the candy they get and a local pizza place is giving us coupons for a free slice and soda. We have been waiving our admin fee for candy donations and many of the local businesses are donating time, candy or prizes. Looking forward to seeing all the kids!

Please post and let us know how this works out, I was very interested in doing something for Halloween, but I couldn't really figure out what, or how much it would end up costing...