Popular Halloween event canceled this year

HONOLULU (KHON2) — A local nonprofit is canceling a popular Halloween event this year.

Habilitat has hosted the Haunted Drive-Thru event at Aloha Stadium since 2020, often selling out and raising significant funds for the nonprofit, which has been helping people with substance abuse rebuild their lives for over 50 years.

Sadly, this year they are canceling the Halloween event.

“I’m definitely going to miss doing it. It was such a fun thing. I did it for the past three years,” said Donovan Noble, who handles Habilitat’s public relations.

“One of the reasons we’re not doing the haunted house drive-thru this year is that almost 50% of our entire population here at Habilitat consists of younger treatment participants,” he explained. “We really want them to focus on their personal treatment and work on themselves.”

Habilitat residents keep the program alive by organizing and running fundraisers, and they do not receive any federal or state funding.

Canceling a popular event creates financial challenges, as that money is used to maintain the facility and cover living expenses for the 100 residents in the program.

“It’s about $2,000 a month for each resident over the course of their stay here,” said Habilitat Sales and Marketing Manager Jason Parrish. “So that’s almost $72,000, which creates significant bills, whether for electricity, water, or food.”

Not holding an event isn’t ideal, but Parrish said they plan to be proactive.

“We’re just going to talk among ourselves and come up with projects that will still benefit the program and be fun for the island,” he explained.

That’s how the haunted drive-thru came about during the pandemic.

The good news is that they are still holding their annual Christmas tree fundraiser and hope the public will come out to support a good cause.

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For more information about Habilitat and see how you can make a donation click here.