October 31 is the most fun COMMUNITY holiday, right?

Don’t we need a little FUN this year?

Halloween 2020 looks different for everyone. We think it’s the perfect day for spreading some smiles and connecting with neighbors (from afar!).

While you MUST adhere to your community’s Halloween Guidelines, we hope you’ll join us in spreading some smiles on the spookiest of days!

Read on for details of how we’ll be doing it in #Needham. Twist and tweak it to make it yours. Please consider raising money for a local nonprofit, organization or business. And remember:

• #TheFrontStepsProject aims to bring communities together (virtually and absolutely with strict social distancing!) in a time when we are isolated.

• Our purpose is rally communities to support local nonprofits, organizations and businesses.

• Please ensure that you are adhering to very strict social distancing and health guidelines as dictated by your community.

• Please credit us! We’re a fantastic creative community. If you’re running your own #TheFrontStepsProject, please use our tag and tag us in your posts. Please also tag @CaraSoulia and @FindingForty the originators of #TheFrontStepsProject.

Yes, those are Cara Soulia’s kids from Halloween’s past! Wonder what their costumes will be this year?

Short and sweet, here’s our approach for October 31:

• We’re kicking off our local #TheFrontStepsProject x Halloween as early as possible so that we have time to plan and schedule for an easy and fun day.

• Our photographers have determined a block of time they’re able to dedicate on Halloween day. Since our photographers are parents of young children themselves, they’re available midday so they can be with their kids at night.

• We’ll post our availability and purpose (raising funds for the NCC Holiday Gifts Program!) on our social feeds and in town pages.

• Neighbors are referred to a web page with details and a sign-up form. We ask sign-ups where they live by school district so that we can plan efficient maps and cover more homes!

• We’ll cap our sign-ups at a particular number. First-come, first-serve.

• We’ll finalize the map 3 days before Halloween and send confirmations and Expected Time of Arrival at that time.

• As always, photographers text residents when they are almost there. Photos can be on the #FrontSteps or anywhere in the yard or street (if relevant and safe). Photographers will be wearing masks and remain 10 feet away. Each photo takes 3 minutes. This is not a session! This is fun and fast and casual.

• Photos will be edited and emailed to participants within a week along with the link to the NCC donation page.

• FUN and JOY and LAUGHS and maybe some THRILLS will (hopefully) be had!

Getting Started

1) Create a web page with details about your #TheFrontStepsProject: Who I Am, Why I Am Doing It, and How It Will Work.

You are welcome to copy some of our content from our page and post if it helps you get started. We do not think you are copying us! Take it, customize it, run with it. But, we would appreciate it if you would please mention @CaraSoulia and @FindingForty as the originators of #TheFrontStepsProject. PLEASE use the hashtag #thefrontstepsproject when you post images.

2) If you know how to do so, create a form for your web page. It will help people sign-up AND help you organize your data for planning later. In Needham, we ask people to tell us their school district. When it’s time to map out how we’ll spend Halloween Day, we’re able to create efficient maps because we know people all live near each other (e.g. The Mitchell School Neighborhood). The efficiency lets us get to more families and raise more money!

3) Determine which local organization might benefit from your goodness!

We chose the Needham Community Council because we believe they are the most well-known to neighbors and they have the widest impact. But, you choose what matters to you and what might rally people to sign up. Uniting Communities — the purpose and mission of #TheFrontStepsProject — means many things. Want to support local businesses? Go for it. A food bank? Yes! Give back to seniors? We love it.

4) If you can, connect with your local organization or business to determine the best way to send donations or business their way. In Needham, we’re sending donors directly to an online donation portal that our non-profit oversees, as it limits fees they’ll incur. We provide every family with a link to the portal when we send the image file. The NCC tracks the donations and lets us know how much was raised.

4) If you can’t connect directly (because we’re all swamped!), don’t let that stop you! Set up a GoFundMe so that you can safely collect donations, set goals, and watch the donations increase. Go Fund Me tells us it is best to create a Charity Campaign, as these will put donations straight through to the 501c3 (non-profit) of your choice.

It is not advised to accept payment or cash from people directly.

5) Find some great Halloween images (maybe of years past, like Cara’s?) to promote your plan! Post it soon as people are planning Halloween a lot more this year in light of COVID. Post in your local Facebook communities and ask your friends to promote it. The more you share, the faster the word will spread in your community.

6) Schedule away. Know your timeframe(s) and fill your pre-determined calendar. If you time it well, it’s possible you’ll have your day mapped out way ahead of time. IMAGINE!

Good luck! We want to help and love to connect, so message us on IG or email us if you have questions.