Spooktacular – Central Minnesota Woman Reaches Halloween Goal

MAKING HALLOWEEN FUN FOR EVERYONE

We checked in with Kristin Hilsgen who has been working hard over the last couple of months collecting candy to make some very special Halloween treat bags for some very special people all over Minnesota. We want to thank everyone who dropped off candy at our location to help out with this great cause.

You can read the original story by clicking HERE.

KRISTEN'S MESSAGE TO YOU

Kristen also left this message for everyone who helped:

'I just wanted to say THANK YOU! To everyone who donated, and came to help assemble the bags. We were able to pull off another amazing year of making 1000 treat bags. As always, it takes a great community of people like yourselves to pull this off every year. Without you all this wouldn't be possible.'

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DISTRIBUTION LOCATIONS

Kristin also shared the exact locations where the treat bags were distributed so you can see what a difference we can make when we all come together.

Thank you Central Minnesota!

FRASER LOCATIONS
Bloomington-24
Brooklyn Center- 24
Burnsville- 16
Coon Rapids- 70
Eagan -42
Eden Prairie -8
Maple Grove- 17
Minneapolis- 98
Richfield- 86
St. Cloud- 34
Woodbury- 52

NORTHWAY LOCATIONS
Sartell – 22
St. Cloud – 34
Annex – 8
St. Cloud South – 12
Bloomington – 5
Baxter – 15
Stillwater – 10
Duluth – 19
Mankato – 19
Alexandria – 16
Elk River – 20
St. Michael – 12
OTHER LOCATIONS
Foundations- 30
Cataylst- 35
Group Homes-60
Kessler Speech- 42
Connectability-100

TRICK OR TREATING ON THE SPECTRUM

Kristin Hilsgen has a son named Jackson. Her wonderful son was diagnosed with Autism when he was just two years old. Jackson is non-verbal. Kristin shared with me that Jackson seemed to have some difficulties around the holidays growing up. Take, for example, Halloween. Trick or Treating for most kids is a fun experience. Dressing up in costumes; the scares; the candy. For Jackson and many other kids on the spectrum, not so much.

Jackson didn’t like wearing costumes because it caused him some sensory issues. Since he is non-verbal, Jackson cannot say “Trick or Treat,” which made some home stops on trick-or-treat journeys feel a little awkward. There were many years when Kristin’s family cut trick-or-treating pretty short on many occasions.

Kristin thought; there had to be a better way. She started making treat bags for his ABA therapy class. (Applied Behavior Analysis). Northway Academy offers therapy for kids on the autism spectrum. Kristin just thought she would do something nice for the kids out of her own pocket at the time, not really thinking about what would happen next.

THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

As each year went by, Kristin started trying to make each treat bag a little better, and eventually add all of the Northway Academy kids in the area.

Since those early days, the gift of giving has turned into a fundraising effort, and
Last year, Kristin and those who wanted to help created around 700-800 treat bags, and were able to reach a lot of children and adults with autism.

This year's goal was 1,000 bags, and that's exactly what they were able to make. Any leftover candy was donated to The Boys & Girls Club of Central Minnesota.

Thank all of you for helping to make it happen!