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Scouring for secondhand costumes and what to do with broken outdoor string lights.
Dear Reader,
Today’s Climate Champ is a man who loves Halloween so much that he spends his year scouring for costumes — “anything shiny, sparkly, or furry,” he says — to ensure that, come that special spooky day, no child goes uncostumed. Nor dog, nor adult, for that matter.
But Christophe Waggoner doesn’t just collect costumes; he reworks them, mending, cleaning, even redesigning — all to make them seem like new.
He calls his project “October’s Child,” and 2025 is his ninth year of offering secondhand costumes to folks in Austin, Texas. It started when Christophe noticed that some of the costumes on the trick-or-treaters who came to his door weren’t as fancy as others. “You just know they don’t have access to the same things,” Christophe told a reporter. “I was looking at kids that were looking at other kids. They were just wishing and admiring.”
So he began frequenting thrift stores, picking up costumes year round. When six kids in foster care sent him thank-you notes after that first year, he vowed to make it an annual event. Christophe grew up in second-hand costumes and learned to sew as a kid. He says October’s Child is “doing something for people, but it’s also helping save the planet. So many people will get a costume and will never wear it again.” That’s a lot of (often petroleum-based) costumes headed to landfill after being worn only once … where they will languish and haunt us forever.
This year, he held his event on September 27, with more than 2,000 costumes available — all for free. The items are purchased by him, and he pays about $5,000 just to store everything.
It’s a lot of work, but it’s all worth it, he says, when he hears the excitement in a child’s voice when they find the perfect costume.
Next year, he’ll celebrate a decade of delivering Halloween happiness to scores of kids. Hurray for today’s Climate Champ, creating spooky magic.
Witchily,
Dot
Have your outdoor Halloween lights finally died out? Burnt-out lights can be recycled at Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Ace.
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