MILWAUKEE — Not all families can afford Halloween costumes and candy to hand out. Trick-or-treating safely near home is also not always an option either.

What You Need To Know

  • On Halloween night from 6-8 p.m., they close the 2300 block of North 17th Street to traffic for a special Trunk-or-Treat

  • Volunteers decorate cars and offer candy, food, games and music

  • Hundreds of kids from the neighborhood come and enjoy it

  • The event also offers community resources to help parents

In an effort to change this, residents of Milwaukee’s Lindsay Heights neighborhood on the city’s north side organize their own event to help.

On Halloween night from 6-8 p.m., they close the 2300 block of North 17th Street to traffic for a special Trunk-or-Treat. Volunteers decorate cars and offer candy, food, games and music. Hundreds of kids from the neighborhood come and enjoy it. The event also offers community resources to help parents.

Jizelle Deleon, 7, and her mother Juliesa joined volunteers to help spread the word through the neighborhood.

“You get cool things like candy, and I just think it’s kind of like a normal Halloween,” said Jizelle Deleon.

Albert Robbins, with Fathers Making Progress, helps plan the event every year. Part of that planning includes reaching out to local businesses and neighbors for support and donations to make the Trunk-or-Treat a success.

“Years and years, it has been poverty-stricken,” Robbins said. “You look around, there aren’t really any thriving businesses. A lot of businesses used to provide services for the community, but it’s no longer there anymore. It’s kind of dilapidated at times.”

His determination to make Halloween special is rooted in his memory of past holidays when there was not much of an option to trick-or-treat in Lindsay Heights.

“Just to be honest with you, a lot of neighbors didn’t answer the door because they didn’t have any treats to give,” Robbins said.

He believes that kids in all neighborhoods deserve to experience a safe and happy Halloween wherever they live.

“If a child can come within a block or two of his house or her house and get treats instead of having to go out in suburbs and outlining areas, I think that’s a good thing,” he said. “It’s about seeing kind-hearted people in your neighborhood.”

It means a lot to kids like Jizelle Deleon.

“Lots of kids will enjoy it, and feel free to have fun,” she said. “It’s a nice event for kids.”

The Central Lindsay Heights Residents Collective and Walnut Way Conservation Corp. are also instrumental in making it happen.

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