Trick-or-Treat Like You Care

I am elated to announce that I am part of the just launched Global Team of 200! The Global Team of 200 is a highly specialized group of Mom Bloggers for Social Good members who focus on maternal health, children, hunger, and women and girls. Our Motto: Individually we are all powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.

This is my first post for the Global Team of 200. You’ll see about 2 posts per month on the above topics. FMI, visit the website, follow on Twitter or like on Facebook.

Do you remember hearing about trick-or-treating for UNICEF when you were little? Maybe you took the collection boxes around when you went door to door on Halloween night.

I never participated, but I definitely heard about the program.

Did you know that the Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program is still going strong in its 62nd year?

Crazy, right? But kids and adults can raise money to provide children in 190 countries and territories with much-needed health care and immunizations, clean water and sanitation, nutrition, education, emergency relief and more.

More than $167 million has been raised since Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF was started.

Today, UNICEF offers 6 fun choices of collection boxes. There’s a pumpkin, witch, black cat and more. And they’re even hosting their first-ever Create-a-Character contest. A winning design from each age category (children ages 4-8, 9-12, and 13 years and older) will be chosen and announced on Halloween. (You have until the 26th to submit your winning design.)

I love the idea of adding a philanthropic piece to Halloween. At my house, we always end up with way too much candy that we never eat. We’re not all that big on candy in the first place, and I end up throwing a lot of it in the trash. (It always amazes me the kind of crap that people actually hand out on Halloween.)

Why not request a collection box or two and help kids in developing countries who don’t get to go trick-or-treating?