It was only a few days ago that Kingston plumber Dan Vokey offered on Facebook to install free candy chutes for anyone in the area who wanted one.
The question has yet to be answered if public health will encouraging trick-or-treating for Halloween this year in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington. Yet Vokey says he hopes to tip the scales in favour of letting children go door-to-door safely.
He says the candy slides offer a way to give out candy while avoiding congestion at the homeowner’s door.
“If we can get it so everything is back in their yards, everybody can distance properly and have it be a safer environment and youngsters can still have fun,” Vokey says.
Vokey says the response to his candy chutes has been tremendous.
“We expected a warm response but when I woke up on Sunday morning, my phone was on fire with emails and Facebook responses,” Vokey says.
He’s asking residents to reply to his offer online because the initial response tied up his company’s phone line.
“Pam, our office manager, told us our voicemail is completely full because of all these people wanting to get these things,” Vokey says.
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Virginia Meeks took up Vokey on his offer and had one of the candy chutes installed. The mother of a toddler, she says she wants her boy to have the same Halloween experiences she has had.
“Children need something,” Meeks says. “They’ve been stressed out all year. They’ve had all the cancellations of school at the beginning and so this is really about them.”
Overall, the local plumber said he is pleased with the response, saying Wednesday he’s scheduled almost 30 candy chute installs.
Vokey says making the chute is an easy fit using roughly two metres of three-inch diameter ABS piping — piping that is a must in every plumbers’ inventory.
Vokey says he decided to install the free chutes because he cares for his community, and he wants to give back. He hopes others will follow his lead.
“If you feel like you need to do something, give a donation to a cause of your choice. If you wanted to put something in our name, I would say the food bank or the humane society,” Vokey says.
Once Halloween has passed, Vokey says people can keep the candy slides or he will pick them up.
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