S.C.A.R.E. NH wants every kid to have a costume
S.C.A.R.E., Secondhand Costume Annual Redistribution Effort, brings Halloween costumes to those in and around southern New Hampshire who would otherwise go without dressing up for the holiday. They also hold a free haunted house called Spooksville, which opened on Friday, Oct. 18. Jesse Palmer is the “Head Hauntcho” of S.C.A.R.E. and spoke about the charity organization. Visit scarenh.org.
What is SCARE?
SCARE is a 501c3 nonprofit charity that collects Halloween costumes and then we give them to families in need all over New Hampshire for no cost.
How did SCARE get started?
I was out shopping one day and I overheard a little girl ask her mom to get a costume, and mom said, ‘We can’t afford that.’ So when I was checking it out, it was a $20 costume, I was like, wow, that kind of sucks for the family that, unfortunately, this is out of their budget. And so I was talking to my wife about it. My son had started to outgrow his costumes. So we were looking for a place to donate our costumes to so that somebody else could use them. And we couldn’t find one. And after about six months of searching, she told me, well, I do have that option of maybe trying to start one myself, and so I did.
Are there any particular costume items you’re looking for more than others, or is everything just great to have?
Everything is great to have. We give out costumes to everybody, infants all the way up through adults. So even 2X, 3X, if we have them available, they’re welcome to take them if they need them. We do seem to go through a lot more of the large and extra-large kid sizes. …
What is Spooksville?
Spooksville is our haunted house. So we have a group of home haunters who all love Halloween but don’t necessarily have enough stuff to do something on their own or they don’t have a place to do it or they’re just a bit older and they don’t want the hassle of doing everything. So we’ve gotten together and we do a home haunt that we offer freely to the public. … And we change our theme every year. This year it is ‘nightmares.’ So once they make it through the haunted corn maze, they’ll finally get into the haunted house itself, where everything that goes bump in the night is waiting for them.
Where is it located and when can people visit?
At 1 Cheshire St. in Nashua. It’s about five minutes off of Exit 6 to head toward Hollis. There’ll be signs and everything, once we put them out you really can’t miss it at that point. On Fridays, we run 7 to 9. On Saturdays we run 6 to 9. Halloween will also be 6 to 9. And then we do kid-friendly Sundays, …and that goes 10 to 2. We’ll have costumes available here at the house for anybody that’s still looking to get costumes for Halloween.
If people are interested in donating costumes, where can they give them to you?
We recommend that they come and check out the Haunt…. So they get a two-for-one deal, they can drop off their costumes and they can check out the haunted house. If not, they can just message us at [email protected], which is the email that we use for the charity, and we make arrangements for a pickup or a meet-up or something of the sort. They can donate all year round. They can volunteer all year round. We do Halloween all year round.
What are some of the more interesting costumes at SCARE that have been donated?
The more interesting stuff comes when it tends to be homemade versus store-bought So we’ve had one that came in that looked like Thomas the Tank Engine. That was a homemade costume. We have some various adult costumes that are like Medusa or a crazy doctor … They tend to be a lot more gory when they’re homemade. — Zachary Lewis
Get SCAREd
Spookville Haunt 2024
1 Cheshire St., Nashua
Fridays: 7 to 9 p.m.
Saturdays: 6 to 9 p.m.
Sundays: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Halloween night 6 to 9 p.m.
Free
Costume Distribution
Manchester Police Athletic League
409 Beech St, Manchester
Monday, Oct. 28, from 3 to 6 p.m.
Featured image: Courtesy photo.
