For the first time, residents of a Bath neighborhood collected private candy donations to help their neighbors handle a large influx of trick-or-treaters during this year’s Halloween festivities.

Bath resident George Flores set out a green bin to collect candy donations for the neighborhood at the intersection of Dike and Cobb roads next to a giant skeleton. Flores estimated he had received 5,200 pieces of candy as of Oct. 23.

“The main impetus, I guess, for it is that we wanted to extend trick-or-treating for as much as possible for everyone who is passing out candy, because not necessarily everyone has $100 to throw down for every kid to get a single piece of candy,” Flores said.

Around 18 houses have signed up to take some of the donations to distribute during Halloween when Andrews Road, Cobb Road and Academy Street are closed to traffic so kids can safely trick-or-treat.

Donations closed as of Monday, and the collected candy is being delivered to homes that signed up. Last year, Flores spent $100 on BJ’s Wholesale Club candy to have enough for the many trick-or-treaters who came through for Halloween.

“I would guess last year we maybe got about maybe about 750 trick-or-treaters, [but] some people in the neighborhood estimated of up to 1,000,” Flores said.

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Flores’ neighbor Catherine Daitzman was one of the neighbors who helped develop the idea for the candy donations because planning for the spooky season can get hectic. She joined the Bath Facebook group and saw a post from Sheila Labrecque on Oct. 1 about people in the Bath community donating candy to the neighborhood because it gets the largest influx of trick-or-treaters.

She hasn’t noticed a significant change in the price of candy but did note that people’s budgets are a bit more stained this year.

“I think it is important because it takes a little pressure off the houses,” Daitzman said.

The neighborhood plans to bring the candy donation back next year. This year, there was no lead organizer, but Daitzman did make the flyers that Flores had passed out.

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