Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

We love Trick-or-Treat. We have a cute set of bowls plus a teal pumpkin. We order our candy several weeks ahead of time, including the pieces we will inevitably eat ourselves. If the weather is nice, we sit on our stoop. Otherwise, I sit on the sofa watching out for Trick-or-Treaters and we take turns answering the door.

The number of children who come to our door varies with mileage. It has been as low as a dozen and upwards of 50.

This year, Laura and I had a long discussion about Halloween safety given COVID-19. We definitely were not going to answer the door to strangers whose masking choices were not apparent to us. We couldn’t sit out on our stoop or sidewalk because it isn’t wide enough to allow for social distancing even if people tried.

That left putting out a bowl with candy and a little sign on the stoop itself. Neither of us felt great about it because we actually think trick-or-treating is a risky activity and don’t want to encourage it really. Any unused candy would have to be tossed out and the bowl sanitized – is that really what Halloween Trick-or-Treating is about?

But we still wanted to celebrate so we came up with the idea of donating the candy we would normally distribute. We chose Proud Haven’s new youth project, Youth Haven, located on the Northside just two neighborhoods away from us. And we are inviting you to join us. Proud Haven supports LGBTQIA+ youth with housing and drop-in services.

I set up an Amazon wishlist that will ship to ProudHaven directly.

Send or drop-off candy. Please call ahead before dropping off to make sure someone is available. And you must wear a mask.