How To Foster A Sense Of Community Among Your Residents This Halloween Season

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Halloween is huge these days, and more than 157 million Americans will celebrate the holiday. If you're a property manager, Halloween gives you a chance to promote the community atmosphere of your buildings and create a sense of camaraderie. Here are some ideas you can use

Considering Joining The Teal Pumpkin Project

If you have a lot of families among your residents, the odds are good that you have a few that have children with food allergies or other restrictions due to things like gluten intolerance or diabetes. The Teal Pumpkin Project aims to make Halloween trick-or-treat traditions accessible to all kids by making sure that there are non-food treats available that kids can have (spider rings, rubber bats, and plastic vampire teeth are perfect "treats") if they can't have regular candy.

You can encourage those residents participating in the project to let you know and you can print out the signs and flyers that they can use to announce their participation. Uniting your tenants around a cause like this can make everybody feel good about what they're doing.

Sponsor A Halloween Decorating Contest

A decorating contest is a great way to get your tenants involved in the holiday and show community spirit. If you live in a relatively small community, you may be able to get local businesses to donate the prizes for your First-Place and Second-Place winners in exchange for letting them judge the contest and do a little free advertising on the announcements. If you don't think that your community businesses will get involved, you can sponsor the prizes yourself—a gift card is always appreciated but you could also offer $100 or $50 off the next month's rent as a prize as well.

Send out flyers announcing the terms of the contest. Make sure to include the deadline by which decorations have to be up and what night judging will take place. If you're looking for certain criteria, such as "Most Original" or "Spookiest," let your tenants know so that it can guide their decorating choices. 

Have A Pumpkin Carving Contest

Pumpkins are great but jack-o-lanterns are better and there's nothing funnier than watching a bunch of grown adults allowing their inner child out to play and be creative. Organize a pumpkin carving contest in the community area and supply the pumpkins and carving tools so that residents can get together and socialize around an activity that is unique to the season. Offer warm apple cider and maybe some pumpkin cookies while people are working.

You can also make use of the pumpkin seeds—ask your residents to gather up the pumpkin seeds they clean out of the pumpkins and set them aside. You can roast them later and then pass them out as gifts to your residents in the spirit of the season.

Developing community pride is part of any property manager's job and holiday celebrations are a great way to do it. Given the rising popularity of Halloween, you don't want to miss the opportunity to make the most of the season!

For more information, contact local professionals like Vintage Corporation.


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