Costume for Kids will provide children in Nanaimo with previously worn costumes with the Halloween season approaching.
"The purpose is to provide a sustainable and affordable Halloween experience for all…" said Amie Armet, Costumes for Kids' lead organizer. "This event is for everybody, it is not just for people who are in need due to cost restrictions, we are very much wanting to promote the sustainability side of this and just getting people to reuse costumes whenever possible."
The costume drive's home base is at the Country Club Centre this year. Last year, the program, run through Mamas for Mamas Nanaimo at the Nanaimo Harbourfront Library branch, provided 450 costumes for families, up from 150 the previous year.
The program is now being run through the Nanaimo Science and Sustainability Society, also known as Nanaimo Science.
"I asked the board to take on this initiative as one of their offerings, and it worked well for the sustainability sector to work under Nanaimo Science as well," said Armet, who is executive director at Nanaimo Science.
The program is able to utilize the non-profit's storage space, which is important, as Armet said there are an estimated 1,500 children costumes currently on hand and more costume donations are being sought. In addition, Royal Canadian Legion Branch 10 donated $2,000 to the program, which Armet said is going toward storage.
Throughout September and October there will be donation drop-off bins at each of the Vancouver Island Regional Library branches in Nanaimo.
"They are black with orange labels and they have a nice purple poster on them to make it obvious for people that they can come and drop off any gently used costumes that they have," Armet said.
On Saturday, Oct. 19, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., families can visit Country Club Centre to find a costume that speaks to them – whether cool, beautiful or spooky.
"There's change rooms for them to choose at and on their way out we just ask that they provide us some data for our collection – what size they took, how many, and we just ask, if they can, they return it to the same drop-off bins."