Most American children look forward to wearing a costume and trick-or-treating on Halloween. For parents, the costs of this one day event add up fast. A member of Hendersonville First United Methodist Church in Tennessee started the Nashville Costumes for Kiddos Project. The program collects gently used costumes and distributes them to families in shelters and after-school programs. It's a simple idea backed by a Sunday school class that wanted to make an impact in the community.
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Transcript:
(Locator: Nashville, Tenn.)
Child: “I’m Spiderman!”
Samantha: “Because of The United Methodist Church, we’re able to have a Halloween.”
Sharonica: “It’s just a joy to know that my daughter is going to be able to have a Halloween. I didn’t think she was going to have one. Sorry.” (tears up)
Volunteer: “Do you want to be a princess?”
Paula Kolish, Hendersonville (Tenn.) First United Methodist Church: “Today we are at the Nashville Rescue Mission. We set up a little costume store and we had all the moms with their kids come in one at a time and got to choose a costume. My name is Paula Kolish, and I attend Hendersonville First United Methodist Church in Hendersonville, Tennessee. And I started the Nashville Costumes for Kiddos program. Nashville Costumes for Kiddos is a costume drive. People donate costumes that they probably have sitting at home that they’ve probably worn just once, and we give them out to homeless shelters, and to after-school programs for kiddos that can’t afford them.”
Child with siblings: “He’s a Power Ranger, he’s Superman, and I’m Batgirl.”
Paula Kolish: “What little boy doesn’t want to be a super hero for a day, or little girl gets to be a pretty princess for a day. It’s kind of feeling special, and for that brief moment they might forget what they go home to. Hopefully a bit of an escape for the parents too, when they see the kids in their costumes.”
Amanda: “We're working hard to get out of this situation we’re in, and if it wasn’t for having people to help us then I don’t think we would have the encouragement to keep going, and this church is doing that.”
Sharonica: “I’m just thankful for the church and the shelter for putting this on for us. It was joy, it made me happy.”
Paula Kolish: “Most of the volunteers we have here today are from my Sunday school class, my Pathfinders class.”
Jim Graham, Hendersonville First United Methodist Church: “Pathfinders is a draw because a lot of churches can say a lot but then you don’t actually see the action side of things. When we were dating churches and looking for this, we wanted activity, we wanted action. Paula came to our group last year and had talked about this opportunity.”
Volunteer looks at costumes with a mom: “You just slip into one, that you can just kind of wrap around.”
Paula Kolish: “I connected right away with the fact that they like to help and I like to help.”
Jim Graham: “At our church, just really important to actually go out and do something more.”
Mother seeing costume: “Awww.”
This video was produced by United Methodist Communications in Nashville, TN.
Media contact is Joe Iovino.
This video was first posted on October 26, 2016.
