After noticing that some kids didn’t have costumes during Halloween, in 2016 Christophe Waggoner of Austin, Texas, started collecting costumes to give away. Every year just before Halloween, he hosts a costume giveaway called October’s Child. Throughout the year, he buys costumes and accessories from thrift stores, spending about $5-thousand annually on storage and preparing the items.
Waggoner repairs, washes, and sometimes revamps the costumes, a skill he learned from his late mother Mary, who taught him to sew when he was young. At his most recent event, held at a local school, he offered over 2-thousand costumes and more than a thousand accessories, including items for children, adults, and pets. The event lasted eight hours and drew between 800 and 900 people, with about 300 costumes left afterward.
One attendee, Brenda Hodgkin, both volunteered at and benefitted from the event, picking out costumes with her daughters. She says she’s known Waggoner for 20 years and describes the event as a way to help others while having fun. Waggoner says what matters to him is seeing people smile, and he plans to continue as long as people enjoy it.
Source: PEOPLE
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