A Foot in the Door: How an internship changed a Veteran’s life…
October 8, 2025Engaging with Andrea: A SPOOKY Good Time
Veteran Engagement Committee- Trunk or Treat!
Group Photo From Trunk N’ Treat!
The Cat and The Hat Gang!
For the last three years, we have provided an annual event around Halloween for our veteran families. Last year, we had the event at HVAF headquarters, featuring a Haunted Hallway, games, and a costume contest. However, we were overrun with little superheroes, witches, and princesses everywhere! We had outgrown the space.
We faced a problem we honestly hadn’t seen coming; the Veteran Engagement Committee now had over 20 families, nearly 100 individuals actively involved, and we were getting too large for our own building! Obviously, a great “problem” to have!
We brainstormed and decided to have the Halloween event, a Trunk and Treat, outside at our Warman property. Staff and families dressed up and we had another costume contest, but this year we added a contest for the best decorated trunk, truck bed, or hatch!
The costumes were especially fantastic! We had Wednesday and Uncle Fester from The Addams Family. I went all out and transformed into a ghost from the Victorian era, complete with spiders eerily crawling from my crazy hair! There was a Star Wars Stormtrooper, a family that brought to life the classic tale, The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, and even Marty McFly from Back to the Future, accompanied by his signature DeLorean! Even Emmy, our CEO, dressed as a skeleton and passed out candy.
Marty McFly’s Delorean!
The families had a wonderful time enjoying donuts, cider, and s’mores bars. There was plenty of candy being distributed from trunks of the committee staff, HVAF staff, and wonderful volunteers who joined us! In the end, the family from The Cat in the Hat won the costume contest, and the trunk that belonged to The Addams Family were the winners of the trunk contest after the families cast their votes. It was another wonderful turnout, a spooky good time, and an answer to our “growth problem”!
If you would like to learn more about the Veteran Engagement Committee, please contact Andrea at acarlile@hvaf.org. If you would like to support HVAF and the veterans and families we serve, please donate today!