For the past three years, Kensington residents on 10A Street NW have done their part to make Halloween fully accessible.

With the return of the Treat Accessibly Village to the community side street over the weekend, children who would have otherwise been unable to go trick-or-treating had their opportunity to take part.

Rich Padulo, the founder of Treat Accessibly, said that’s the reason why the villages that have popped up across North America are so important.

“It’s a two-fold encouragement. The encouragement goes to the homeowners, the adults, but we also want to show our children how to be more inclusive and excessively inclusive in their lives… one day, they’ll be more accessibly inclusive, because Halloween taught them that,” he said.

“So, we’re not only supporting the community immediately on Halloween but because Halloween is probably the largest community event of the year, we’re rallying an entire society to make a change and prove that institutions can change, which is hugely important for our kids to know that they can change the world.”

Seeing children getting to trick-or-treat for the first time is an emotional experience for their families, who get to see the joy on their child’s face, to the residents who get to improve the lives of strangers in a meaningful way, to Padulo himself who with more than a few tears in his eyes on Oct. 19, got to see his family’s vision for accessibility once again be realized.

“Treat Accessibly just provides a filter, a lens to magnify that kindness that pre-exists. We give people the tools to do it,” he said.

The grassroots movement began in 2017 after Siena Padulo saw that their home with a walk-up path to their front door would be inaccessible to trick-or-treaters.

“This started when I was six, and my dad and I were setting up pumpkins on the stairs to our front door, and we saw a little boy using a wheelchair. We realized that he couldn’t trick or treat at our house for Halloween, so we decided that that year to move the candy handout to the end of the street up to the end of our driveway,” she said.

The growth to nine cities across Canada, one in the United States, and a sign campaign that saw more than 150,000 homes in Canada take part in accessible trick-or-treating was something she never expected, said Siena Padulo.

“I was a little bit surprised, but I’m very thankful that everybody’s so enthusiastic about it. Everybody wants to participate, and everybody’s had such an open mind to this idea, because it’s not very traditional to hand out sheets at the end of the driveway,” Siena said.

“It’s heart-melting to hear these stories of just people coming together to support like one child on the street that has a disability. It makes my day every time I hear it.”

Rich Padulo said that he’s seen first hand how the villages have helped children, with one child who was non-verbal speaking their first words at the Calgary village.

Today, he said, that child was able to say him to him.

Children who can’t partake in Halloween aren’t always obvious

Those children aren’t always the ones with visible disabilities, said Rich Padulo.

The movement also helps children who are neurodivergent, have hidden mobility challenges, or have trouble with social interactions.

“A homeowner can go get a lawn sign that identifies their home as accessible at Halloween and a few simple tips and tricks from our website, and all of a sudden, they’re treating to children with mobility, sensory and intellectual disabilities—all disabilities, whether people can see that there’s a disability, or an invisible disabilities that you don’t really know of,” he said.

“You’re supporting not only the children, you’re supporting your neighbours.”

That neighbourhood spirit to make Calgary’s village happen is each year, a long process in the making.

Discussions began with the City of Calgary and homeowners back in May, Padulo said.

“We have almost 100 per cent of the homeowners on this section of the street participating. We start planning with them in May, along with the city. Our daughter met with Mayor [Jyoti] Gondek in May 2024, and the mayor has offered her full support of the movement, the event, as well as the whole purpose of it is to educate any home that trick or treats,” he said.

Mayor Gondek said that her support of the village came about as a result of the City having the power to improve the lives of Calgarians, and then to follow through on that.

For the 2024 village, road access to 10A Street NW was closed down, and parking was set up along adjacent streets for visitors to the village.

“The thought that there could be kids who wouldn’t be able to partake in Halloween is awful. We have the ability to make sure that Halloween can be accessible. Even better, you can have an event before Halloween, where the street is closed off and everyone is enjoying themselves, and all of the neighbours on this block are out because they care,” Mayor Gondek said.

“They care about accessibility. They care about kids and families. This is incredibly heartwarming, and you can’t say no to something like this.”

Her message, much like that of the Padulo family, was for Calgarians to consider making their trick-or-treating accessible on Oct. 31.

“I think it’s important if you can, if your street is set up in a way where you can move your treats a little bit closer to the sidewalk, or if you have the kind of a street where you could congregate as neighbours and set up a table so it’s easier for people to get in and out those the kinds of things we need to be thinking about,” the mayor said.

All of the treats for the 2024 village were donated by Kinder and Canadian Tire, and free books were given out to children by Treat Accessibly and The Little Red Reading House.

Free signs indicating that a home is accessible on Halloween are available via RE/MAX, and at Pet Value locations.

Photos from the 2024 Treat Accessibly Village