10/30/2026
Happy Halloween from Pack 219 🎃🍫🍭👻
October 31st is a great night to be a Scout.
Not because of the candy - though nobody is complaining about the candy. But because Halloween is, at its heart, a community event. And Scouts know how to show up for their communities.
Think about what happens on Halloween night in most neighborhoods.
Doors open. Strangers smile at each other. Kids of every age and background walk the same streets, knock on the same doors, share the same experience of a night when the whole neighborhood is outside together. It doesn't happen very often. And a Scout who shows up to that night in the right spirit - friendly, courteous, kind, genuinely engaged with the community around them - is living the Scout Law in a very natural setting.
A Scout is Friendly. Halloween practically writes the requirement.
There's no official Church position on Halloween. Latter-day Saint families approach it differently - some fully embrace the costumes and trick-or-treating, some prefer harvest festival alternatives, some focus on service or family gatherings instead. All of those choices are valid, and this post isn't here to tell you which one is right for your family.
What it is here to say is this: however your family observes October 31st, Scouting gives it a framework worth leaning into.
IF YOU'RE TRICK-OR-TREATING:
Go as a patrol. There is something deeply Scout-like about a group of kids in matching costumes - or better yet, Scout uniforms - working their way through a neighborhood together, looking out for each other, saying thank you at every door, and demonstrating to every neighbor they encounter that the young people in this community were raised with MANNERS.
A Scout is Courteous. Every "trick or treat" is an opportunity to mean it.
IF YOU'RE STAYING HOME & HANDING OUT CANDY:
This is genuinely underrated as a Scouting moment. The family that turns their porch into the best stop on the street - that gives generously, that greets every child warmly regardless of costume, that makes the little ones in scary masks feel brave instead of embarrassed - that family is practicing what Boaz practiced in the fields of Bethlehem. Generous hospitality to strangers. Kindness that costs something and asks nothing in return.
A Scout is Kind. The porch is your post.
IF YOUR UNIT IS HOSTING A FALL FESTIVAL:
Perfect. Service with a side of pumpkins. A troop that opens its doors to the community - that creates a safe, warm, fun environment for neighborhood kids and families - is doing exactly what Nehemiah did. Looking at what the community needs and deciding that it's their job to provide it. Anxiously engaged in a good cause.
However your family marks October 31st - have fun, be safe, be kind to your neighbors, and take care of each other out there.
And save some of the good candy for your Scoutmaster. They've earned it.
💬 What does your troop do for Halloween? And do you have a favorite Scout-themed costume idea? Drop it in the comments - we want to see what this community comes up with.
