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Decorating debris piles: Shore Acres residents celebrating Halloween after hurricanes

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Published  October 31, 2024 9:21pm EDT
St. Petersburg
FOX 13 News

Decorated debris for Halloween

Evyn Moon reports

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - This Halloween when kids should be going from house to house trick-or-treating, many neighborhoods are vacant with residents displaced after Hurricanes Helene and Milton. 

But in Shore Acres, they’re trying to make the best of it, with a contest for decorating debris piles. As the community tries to make the best of a bad situation after back-to-back hurricanes, you can find Jack-O-Litter, Pumpkin Piles and Ghostly Garbage. 

"It’s giving some sort of normalcy in the midst of chaos and in the crazy world that we live in right now," said Matt Thorn, a Shore Acres resident and the contest's coordinator. "And I was just like, 'well, everyone's saying to dress up or do something for Halloween,' because that's what we usually do. And I was like, ‘if we can incorporate something from our debris, it kind of gives it a little bit of lightheartedness from something that is really tragic and awful.’"

READ: Community helping St. Petersburg City Theatre recover from Hurricane Milton

This Halloween, Thorn is not only encouraging decorating debris, but is also hosting a costume contest with many people opting for a storm-survivalist theme. Thorn is also the creator of the Relief Market and Grille, which has been making three meals a day for his neighbors for more than a month now. 

"We do breakfast, lunch and dinner every day for our neighbors and anybody else who needs it," he said. "I do about 700 meals a day." 

This week’s menu was "Spooktacular" with a whole skeleton spread, which included charcuterie, deviled egg eyes, a pumpkin with guacamole and much more. It comes as neighbors are trying to do what they can to smile this October by turning their trash into Halloween decorations. 

"It's an awesome aspect of just bringing community together in a time that's probably one of the most difficult times that people are actually going to go through."

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