Halloween skeletons raise over $1m for children with cancer

Skeletons for St. Jude, started in 2020 by Jeff Robertson from North Carolina, this year brings together 625 homes across the US. Owners decorate their yards with skeletons and collect donations for St. Jude children’s cancer hospital, with more than a million dollars raised so far.

It all began with one meeting: Robertson met a young cancer patient and decided to turn his favourite holiday into a fundraiser. The skeleton houses are marked on the online Fright Map: a week before Halloween it already showed 202 addresses, and neighbours visit them as families.

The seventh season aims for $2 million, and decorations can stay up until 25 December. The money goes to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, whose goal is that families never receive a bill for treatment, travel, housing or food. A fine example of a neighbourhood bit of fun becoming real help.