MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee’s Bay View neighborhood has a nearly two-decade-old Halloween tradition. A&J’s Halloween House creates a new theme each year to celebrate the spooky season.
For the past 18 years, Andy Reid and his husband, Jamie Beauchamp, have decked out their front yard with a special Halloween motif. This year, it’s a spooky twist on a popular TV game show.
“We decided we were going to do game shows this year, and we had multiple game shows picked out, but we settled on Wheel of Misfortune so we could do a little more detail with it,” said Reid.
Reid said when they first started decorating their front yard, they had no idea how much attention it would attract. That’s when he and his husband decided they could do more.
They started collecting donations from people who enjoyed their annual decor and donated all the funds they raised to various local charities.
For the past eight years, they have collected money exclusively for Pathfinders.
Katie Kuhn works with the organization, which serves youth who are in crisis in the Greater Milwaukee area.
She said over the years, Reid and Beauchamp have donated $50,000 to Pathfinders from their Halloween House.
“We help with housing support, education and employment goals, mental health, I mean really the full spectrum of what any young person needs to be successful, particularly young people experiencing homelessness,” said Kuhn.
Last year, just over 4,500 youth and young adults received help from Pathfinders. That includes one-on-one interactions with its street outreach team.
Reid said he’s dedicated to helping the wide spectrum of young people that Pathfinders helps, including the LGBTQ+ community.
“I’d love us to continue growing the amount of donations that come about. There’s a lot of people in the city that come by or view or comment or whatever and if everybody gave simply a dollar, we would be rockin’ the donation bin,” said Reid.