East Northport Family Continues Halloween Bake Sale Tradition

One family has been holding a bake sale outside their East Northport home on Halloween since 2005 to raise funds for the Northport Food Pantry.

This year is the bake sale’s 12-year anniversary and the Perles sisters are working to make sure it’s their best year yet. It’s going to be a challenge as last year’s bake sale raised $2,300 and was their most successful one to date.

Dylan Perles was just 7 years old when she decided she wanted to raise money for people in need

The idea came to her when she was in the play “Annie” in community theater. “It was upsetting to me that I was playing a little girl who didn’t have any money,” Dylan said.

At first, Dylan wanted to hold a lemonade stand, but that idea was nixed after realizing no one ever visits her dead end street. Halloween, however, is a different story on her block. "I soon put it together that Halloween is the one day in which my street is crowded because it is a really safe place to trick or treat," she said.

Dylan held her first Halloween bake sale in 2005 and raised $100 for the Northport Food Pantry.

Years later, Dylan, 18, and her sisters Zoe, 16, and Kyra, 11, have helped raise more than $8,500.

• Where: 39 Kalmia St.
• When: Monday (Halloween) from 3 p.m. until supplies run out
• What kind of treats will be at the bake sale? There will be cupcakes, hot chocolate, hot cider and coffee, brownies, cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cranberry bread and plenty more.

The sisters have held this bake sale every year, even during Hurricane Sandy when there was no electricity. Surprisingly, 2012 was one of their most popular years.

Dylan is in her first year of college and is unable to make it home to the bake sale, but she has a good excuse.

“I'm taking off two days the following week to come home and vote in my first election,” she said. “I know my family and friends will carry on our tradition this year, a tradition that has become a big community event that everyone in our neighborhood looks forward to.”

Courtesy photo