By Victoria Surla
Trick-or-treating this year has become a polarizing debate amid COVID-19. As medical health professionals urge individuals to follow proper social distancing measures, many parents feel as though allowing their children to trick-or-treat may pose health risks towards many local residents.
Geoff Burke, a George Brown College graduate, thought he found the alternative to this solution with his invention of the “candy chute”. As a plumber and owner of Watermark Plumbing Services Inc., Burke created a product that allows parents to distribute trick-or-treat candy through a tube-like mechanism, down the railings of the front step to waiting children.
Gaining an extensive amount of support and public interest in the Greater Toronto Area, Burke was able to raise over $17,000 for Daily Bread Toronto by selling the candy chutes for $25 a piece.
“It was overwhelming, we put it out in Facebook groups, and we had about 400 requests in the first two days,” said Burke.
Shortly after the project began, however, Burke felt compelled to follow the requests of medical professionals in the local area. Since the GTA has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases and trick-or-treaters have been advised to stay home this Halloween, Burke decided to discontinue the candy chute project shortly after it began.
“Quite literally minutes into making these candy chutes on Monday morning, someone tagged me in an article and the news came through so we put everything to a stop, just to figure out what we were going to do moving forward,” said Burke. “We decided that it wasn’t best to go against the recommendations made by public health.”
“I’m not a health expert or anything like that so I don’t want to go against what they are saying.”
Although many donors never received their candy chutes, Burke’s supporters were happy to know their money went to a good cause.
“Because everything was donated directly through Daily Bread, they actually were not allowed to refund any of the money. What I did, was I reached out to everyone individually and you know, a lot of people donated more than just the $25… I offered, out of my own pocket, a $25 refund just to cover if they were upset that we weren’t going to be giving them the chute.”
But no one was interested in accepting the money.
“It actually grew, I put out another call after the cancellation and now we’re up to $24,000. It’s going really well.”
While COVID-19 continues to force people into finding new ways to make memories this year, Burke has already given his daughter an authentic yet safe Halloween experience.
“I have a two-year-old so personally we are going to be doing something along the lines of a scavenger hunt in the backyard with candy and all that,” he said. “I can’t condone the trick-or-treating just because they don’t. I’m sure there’s a way to do it safely, but I feel that sticking with government guidelines is the best course of action.”
