ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s an October tradition outside of Balloon Fiesta or the trick-or-treat scares. More than a decade after starting it, a popular Halloween retailer is celebrating the more than a million dollars they’ve given to some New Mexico hospitals. Walk into any Spirit Halloween store and you’ll find hundreds of costumes and plenty of […]
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – It’s an October tradition outside of Balloon Fiesta or the trick-or-treat scares. More than a decade after starting it, a popular Halloween retailer is celebrating the more than a million dollars they’ve given to some New Mexico hospitals.
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Walk into any Spirit Halloween store and you’ll find hundreds of costumes and plenty of spooky decor. As Halloween inches closer and more people shell out cash for a scare or a costume, they’re also unknowingly at no extra cost donating some of what they paid to help out Presbyterian Hospital. “Every year when our customers go into the store, ten percent of all the shopping the customers do goes back to the child life program,” said Manager Sal Bosler, Presbyterian Child Life Program.
The program is called Spirit of Children and helps different children’s hospitals all over the country. The goal is to make hospitals less scary for pediatric patients and families coping with stress and anxiety. The money collected by the program also helps put on activities celebrations and more. “We’ve had donations up to 100 dollars so that’s been really nice,” said Andrea Espinoza with Spirit Halloween.
Just last year, the Spirit of Children raised over $160,000 for Presbyterian and over the lifetime of the program since 2008, they raised over a million dollars. That money helps more than just in the spooky season. It allowed Presbyterian to remodel their behavioral health gym with donations and that’s not all. “This year we were able to purchase a kitty scanner that’s a huge purchase for us,” said Bosler.
That’s a machine helping children cope with MRI or CT scans something they hope can lower the likelihood of a child having to be sedated for a scan. “Thanks to the donations that come to the Presbyterian Health Care Foundation and go to the child life department, we are able to provide these resources to our pediatric patients,” said Bosler.
The campaign lasts through Halloween.