Kids’ Halloween costume drive needs donations at both campuses 

LBCC’s parenting hub is experiencing a shortage of Halloween costume donations, which would benefit kids of parents who can’t afford a new costume for them. Donations are now being accepted until Oct. 27.

Donation boxes for the costume swap drive are located in the EOPS offices at LAC in A-1134 and GG-217 at the TTC campus.

The original plan for the costume drive was to collect costumes through October to eventually have an event where parents can bring their children, to swap their old, outgrown costumes for new costumes. 

However, the event wasn’t possible because at LAC, the donation box received only eight donations and TTC received none. 

“We haven’t received any donations whatsoever and we’ve reached out to everyone,” Linda Esqueda, who is in charge of the LBCC Parenting Hub and helped organize the event, said.

Costumes that have been received will be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis and available costumes will be posted on the Parenting Hub Canvas page.

Pickup for costumes will be at the Parenting Hub in BB-208 located at TTC.

Students interested in getting a costume for their kid can email Esqueda to join the LBCC Parenting Hub Canvas page and let her know they are interested. 

“We’ve received really adorable costumes. We got a ladybug, some cute dresses and people have even donated baby caps for newborns,” Joanna Hernandez, another organizer of the event, said. 

Esqueda mentioned that the Parenting Hub also reached out to thrift stores to ask for donations, but they have not heard back from them.

“The idea was to reduce costs for parents during the holiday season because the holidays are really busy and can get expensive,” Hernandez said.

The drive was originally planned to have a full donation swap event on Thursday at TTC, but ended up getting canceled. 

“I didn’t want to have a big event and have a bunch of parents come and we don’t have enough costumes for them,” Hernandez said.

Although the swap will no longer have a full event, the donated costumes are still available for pickup.

“It’s a tough space to be in and it’s a tell of the times. It’s definitely hard to meet everybody’s needs, but we’re all doing the best we can,” Hernandez said.

^{Donated costumes can bring Halloween joy to kids, even if the costumes are considered “new-to-you.”}