Every year, Sacred Heart opens their doors to the neighbors as a one-stop trick-or-treating location. Seminarian Stephen Moening, Theology II, organized the 2021 Halloween event. He shared, "Since the neighborhood is not the safest and door-to-door trick-or-treating is difficult in the city, we invite our neighbors to come to our doors and we fill their bags."
Moening continued, "We reached out to archdiocesan parishes at the end of September and asked them to take up a collection of candy for the event. Once we pick up the candy from the parishes, we unpack it all into large bins and boxes. This year we collected the most candy we have ever had! With this, we were able to overflow about 2,500 people's bags with candy. Kids could hardly carry their bags after coming through our line! The gates opened at 5:00pm and people started lining up around 2:30pm. We also provided prayer ministry, handed out rosaries and offered to pray with our neighbors. This was especially important this year because of all the hardships that we as a community are going through, many that we prayed with had lost a loved one during the COVID pandemic."
"It was a day full of joy and laughter. Many people were thankful that we were able to have the event this year after not doing it last year. The kids were able to come out and have a great time with us; many passed the football around, played soccer, and even watched a magic show put on by one of our seminarians. It is truly a community event that all of us seminarians are honored to put on," Moening said.
