Safe Halloween: Calgary couple creates COVID-19 prevention kits for trick-or-treating
October is right around the corner, which has kids and families asking about the likelihood of trick-or-treating this year.
Well, a Calgary couple who have three young kids thought of a creative solution so the door-to-door quest for candy can happen safely this year.
Mark Jean and his wife, Kim, are selling "COVID Safe Halloween kits" with the goal to show that Halloween can be done safely.
Jean told the Calgary Eyeopener that the idea came to light after his kids started questioning the possibility of Halloween happening during the pandemic.
"They are very much in love with Halloween," said Jean, who works as an engineer specializing in risk management.
"It was something that prompted my wife and I to actually start thinking about how we could make it safer for our kids and and let them be able to do something a little bit more normal and what they're used to in terms of trick-or-treating."
He said they then began researching what other companies were doing, as well as looking at commercial and retail shops to see how they manage physical distancing.
"We saw that they had the social distancing dots and the direction arrows and, more importantly, the Plexiglass between the cashier and the customers," he said.
The Plexiglass gave them the idea to use a shrink wrap plastic film as a barrier for doorways, allowing an easy way to give out candy without getting too close.
"You'd use your hair dryer and you'd use that to heat it, which would remove the wrinkles and make it a little bit stronger," he said.
"Our kids really enjoy decorating it, putting stickers on it and drawing on it to provide that that extra Halloween theme."
The kits, which sell for $19.95, also include driveway arrows, physical distancing stickers and decorations for the plastic film doorway to prevent accidental contact.
As well, in order to ensure extra precautions, Jean says he has also included an instruction manual that promotes requirements set by Alberta Health Services — like wearing face masks.
"We also recommend just taking the candy when it's complete at the end of trick-or-treating and just putting it aside and letting, I guess, a few days pass before the kids have access to it," he said.
The idea has not yet been approved by AHS, but the couple hopes that in the coming days their kit can be listed as an option for Halloween this year.
"This is just that added level of protection that we hope the health services groups can see and maybe perhaps promote as an additional barrier protection and then give them options to not cancel Halloween," he said.
The couple has already created 5,000 kits for Calgarians to order and have shipped to their homes by Halloween.
