Halloween Costume Drive Underway At San Mateo Co. Nonprofit

SAN MATEO COUNTY, CA — As trick-or-treating and school or community Halloween events are part of many children's childhoods, the Samaritan House hopes to provide costumes to make the holiday happy for its clients' youngsters, and a collection-drive is underway this month with a Sept. 27 deadline.

"Costumes are expensive for our low-income families," said the nonprofit, which serves San Mateo County. "Lots of school or community events require a costume and having a new one is very exciting for our client children. It allows them to join in with their classmates and neighborhood friends and be just like them."

Established in 1974, Samaritan House works to help provide such basic needs as food, clothing, shelter and health care for its clients through case-management and partnering with other organizations.

Also among the agency's annual efforts are collections drives for back-to-school items, coats, Thanksgiving food and holiday gifts — and in this case, Halloween costumes, with roughly 650 needed, to help financially struggling parents create fun memories for their little ones.

The organization is seeking new costumes, including larger sizes, for kids, ages 3 to 16 years old. The costumes will be given out in October at the agency's Kids Closet.

PLEASE NOTE: The deadline for drop-off is Friday, Sept. 27.

Donations can be dropped off to either the Kids Closet, or Third Floor Offices at 4031 Pacific Blvd in San Mateo. For additional information, call 650-341-4081.

Another participation option is to establish an Amazon Smile account and purchase directly from there. Samaritan House will receive 0.5 percent of each purchase price from Amazon as an additional donation.

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