Red Sneaker Day Spotlight: Jessica Carrillo
Creating a Safe and Inclusive Halloween: How I Brought Food Allergy Awareness to the Bay Area this Past October
By Jessica Carrillo
Right around September, I start to see inklings of goblins and ghosts. Small whispers of Halloween. I see decorations pop up in front yards - slinking on through. Passing a driveway each day on my way to work, one or two more characters pop up, as if to wean us all into the idea of Halloween. Little do they know that right around September, I have been thinking about Halloween for a full month already!
While I’ve always loved the holiday season, in some ways, my forward thinking is less about the holidays themselves and more about the fact that I’ve transformed my love for school projects to food allergy awareness events. What started as an idea in 2018 has now become my Teal Pumpkin Painting Party at the Morgan Hill Steve Tate Library. And as far as allergy awareness goes, this is one of my most favorite projects to date!
About The Event
The Teal Pumpkin Painting Party is a free event held at the Morgan Hill Library. This past October, I held the 3rd annual event on October 29th. One of the key aspects of this event is that it is completely free to the public. Any and all ages are welcome to attend the event and learn about food allergy awareness during Halloween. I try to make it as accessible as possible so that everyone has a chance to come no matter the financial situation. All supplies needed are provided, while our supplies last. At the end of the day, I believe that this will reach even more people and that’s my biggest goal.
Teal Pumpkin Painting
This year, the event was broken up into three main parts. First, we had our teal pumpkin painting station, which took place in the Morgan Hill Library’s children’s craft room. It’s a separate room away from all the books. As you walked in, you were greeted by one of my fabulous volunteers. Everyone got to pick out a special Red Sneakers for Oakley wristbands and pick out their mini pumpkin. As you walked in further, you were presented with teal paint, glitter glue, stickers, googly eyes, and markers.
After grabbing everything your heart desires, you would head over to one of our tables and decorate! As the main part of my event, the teal pumpkin painting was very popular. Within the first hour, we were having to redirect attendees to the second part of our event while we waited for tables to clear out a bit.
Teal Pumpkin Scavenger Hunt
New this year was the Teal Pumpkin Scavenger Hunt! Initially I was a bit hesitant to redirect from the teal pumpkin painting when the Library mentioned we could do a scavenger hunt. However, after some thought, I realized this was a great way to incorporate the teal pumpkin even more.
So instead of doing their standard scavenger hunt, the Library and I worked together to create the teal pumpkin scavenger hunt. I decorated ten different mini teal pumpkins and the Library helped me hide them around the children’s books. To say that the Teal Pumpkin Painting Party took over the Library that day would be pretty accurate!
When the Children’s room got filled, we were able to seamlessly redirect attendees to the scavenger hunt and tell them they could paint their pumpkins right after. It was truly such a lifesaver and I had a lot of fun decorating the little scavenger hunt pumpkins.
The Drawing/ Free Raffle
The last part of the event was right at the end, but it was one of my favorite parts. As people walked in, I had my volunteers tell attendees that there would be a drawing at 2:45pm. Everyone was given three tickets to put in whatever cup they wanted. I was told by Library staff this may be too late in the day, but decided to proceed with it anyways. Up for grabs was a cute puppy puzzle with red sneakers, some fun Halloween glasses, and a stuffed animal Service Detection Dog Harley.
Harley was a HUGE hit with the kids. Near the end of the event I noticed more and more people were finishing their pumpkin painting. But people were still lingering around the Library. Right around 2:45 pm, the room started to fill up once again. I announced on speaker that our raffle was just about to start, and everyone made their way back over. A whole group of kids surrounded the table waiting anxiously to hear their names.
We started with the glasses. A fellow TIP family won one pair. Another little boy actually won two in a row. When he realized he won two, he took the second pair and gifted it to another little kid that he didn’t even know. It was one of the sweetest things!
A tiny little girl won our puppy puzzle. She looked stunned but took the box anyway when her mom told her it was for her.
Finally, a little girl named Saylor won our Harley grand prize. I had a dozen little eyes just watching me the moment I pulled out the ticket for Harley. I wish I could have given everyone their own little Harley
The Inspiration
Despite being known for its advancements in tech, the Bay Area in California has some ways to go when it comes to food allergy awareness. While we have some allergy friendly options in San Francisco, the San Jose and Morgan Hill area could use some serious help. Growing up in this area, I honestly felt like I was the only person in the world with food allergies.
When I first heard about Food Allergy Research and Education (FARE)’s Teal Pumpkin Project, all I could think was, I wish more people knew about this!
While I always found joy in Halloween despite my allergies, The Teal Pumpkin Project promotes an allergy friendly Halloween that could change lives. If you leave a teal pumpkin at your front door, trick or treaters know that non-food treats are available. So I figured, why not bring people together to create teal pumpkins so that they are already halfway there? During the event I also try to highlight the significance of the teal pumpkin in hopes that some people will take part in the teal pumpkin project.
My Hopes for Next Year
The Teal Pumpkin Painting Party of 2023 was such a HUGE success! We had 176 people show up and line up out the door. I even had a few people tell me that they had come back from years before. Having that many people show up can be a little chaotic, but somehow it all managed to go on without a hitch. It truly was such an amazing day.
Next year, I am hoping to have another great turnout. I would love to extend the event timing and include more raffle prizes! I am also hoping that we can either include more games, or figure out how to further include the food allergy education piece.
As always, I am thankful to Red Sneakers for Oakley and all their support! It’s so wonderful to see an organization that truly supports those of us with food allergies. And a special thank you to Natalie and Harley of Detective Harley F.A.D.D. for their donation of a Harley stuffed animal. I also want to thank my friends and family who helped me make my event possible. Food allergy awareness is a group project, and I am so lucky to have such great teammates.
