Watsonville community group giving out Halloween costumes for families in need

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV): It is every kid's wish to dress up for Halloween and go trick or treating in their favorite costume.

However, most families who might not have the financial resources to buy their kids a Halloween costume.

Raices y Carino is a community organization based in Watsonville and has a goal to make every kid feel special for the spooky holiday.

"It started with a local school counselor who was looking for costume donations for her students at two schools at PVUSD," Nora Yerena who is the Founder of Raices y Carino said.

Yerena said the community responded in a very big way. It went from having enough costumes to just support a couple of schools to now support a lot of students in the community.

Yerena and her husband offered their space to accept Halloween costume donations.

"We're hearing from students themselves is the situation where there's a feeling of being left out of exclusion." said Yerena.

Yerena said they started accepting donations last week, and so far they've been receiving five costumes a day.

Online costumes range from the hundreds to the thousands, that is another reason why Yerena along with other community partners are helping out with the cause.

"The cost of costumes is really absurd," said Yerena. "Especially for the quality we're getting, I know for our family, we have way too many children to be buying costumes every single year."

Yerena said they're accepting the donations, but are still figuring out the distribution of the costumes.

If anyone wants to donate a Halloween costume, you can drop it off at Raices y Carino at 1205 Freedom Boulevard in Watsonville.

Anyone can stop by Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

If you can't make it during those times, please call or text 831-288-3105.