Habitat for Humanity family celebrates last Halloween in current Keene home

KEENE — It’s hard to miss one of the 19 Halloween blow-up decorations on the front lawn of 180 South Lincoln St.

A menacing black cat looks ready to pounce at passersby, a tall ghoul hides under a cloak pointed out at the sidewalk, and smack dab in the center, a stoic-looking dragon commands the crew.

Morgan Allard-Croke’s favorite decoration is more subtle than these eye-catching creatures. On the right of the yard rests a 13-foot slithering snake that her 3-year-old daughter Amorielle can run under.

Allard-Croke and her husband, Jacob Croke, have put the display up in the front yard of their apartment building since 2020.

“Luckily, our landlord has been so amazing in letting us put that display out front, and all of our neighbors in the rest of the building have been like, ‘Oh my god, it’s amazing’ and very supportive and appreciative,” Allard-Croke said.

This Halloween marked a milestone — it was their family’s last in the two-bedroom apartment before moving into a new home built by the local Habitat for Humanity chapter in a more rural area of Keene. The family celebrated their final holiday on South Lincoln Street by setting up the display so visitors could walk through the giant inflatable decorations on Halloween night.

Though the couple still plans to blow up their Halloween decorations each year, their new home on Old Walpole Road will be much more secluded than their current residence in a busy neighborhood perfect for candy-hungry trick-or-treaters.

The family’s collection of decorations began in Winchester in 2019. Both Allard- Croke and her husband have birthdays in October. Allard-Croke’s is just over a week before Halloween. “We’ve always … celebrated my birthday in the spooky fashion. So it really just resonated to just continue as an adult in any way that I could to flourish in the holiday,” she said.

The tradition carried on, and the couple grew their collection to the 19 inflatables.

While in 2020 trick-or-treaters were far and few, the next year the Crokes’ home was hopping.

“I think [this was] not only because of our display, but because, you know, 2021 was everybody just wanted to get back out there and wanted to see normalcy again. ... We saw a huge influx,” Allard-Croke said. She also noted it doesn’t hurt that her family hands out full-sized candy bars.

“I remember, in 2021 we actually had a Keene PD officer stop and ... was like, ‘You guys have, like, a whole line down your driveway and down the sidewalk ... I had to just come check out what was going on.’ ”

Habitat for Humanity

The walk-through of the display was a new addition this year, in celebration of it being the family’s last Halloween in the apartment.

“All of the kids love the inflatables. It’s just in their nature to want to get up and personal with those things,” Allard-Croke said. In years past, the family tried to keep people from getting too close because the strings holding the inflatables are a tripping hazard.

But this year they took steps to make it possible for guests to walk through the maze of Halloween creatures in the front yard. Strollers could fit through, and the path was marked with glow sticks stuck in the ground, Allard-Croke said.

She said she and her husband have been looking for a house for years. “It was prior to having my daughter. We were looking into buying a home … the market is absolutely wild, and it just is not reasonable for the financial situation that we are in.”

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This is a familiar situation for people across the state and country right now, as officials at all levels of government wonder how to address the housing crisis. There are too few houses, and costs are too high for many to afford.

“We had tried and put in so many offers on homes in the past couple of years that were just, you know, people come in with these cash offers and … we just got trampled on,” she said. “We didn’t qualify for a conventional home loan,” Allard-Croke said.

Her family would have been able to get a Federal Housing Assistance Loan or U.S Department of Agriculture Loan, but those come with their own constraints. “With the homes that we could possibly buy, they wouldn’t qualify under those ... type of loans, because they’re just, they just needed too much work.”

She found out about Habitat for Humanity from a colleague at the Keene Family YMCA. “I was expressing to her ... this is what’s going on with us. This is kind of where we’re at. And she was like, ‘Hey ... have you heard about Habitat?’”

Allard-Croke hadn’t, but after learning of the program was encouraged by the possibility of working with the organization.

“ … I was like, yeah, let’s run with it.”

When she found out around early fall that she, her husband, their daughter and their 8-month-old nephew, who they take care of, were chosen to move into one of the new duplexes, she was “ecstatic.”

The family was selected to move into one of two new homes Habitat for Humanity broke ground on this year. Michael Conway, a member of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter, said the first unit should be ready for the Crokes next spring.

Allard-Croke said they’re looking forward to the small things in their new home; less creaks than in the older building where they live now, counter space in the kitchen and more room for the kids, who currently share a small room.

Each child will have their own room. “Which is amazing,” she said.

She also loves that working with Habitat gives her the chance to help build her family’s future home. “Having the opportunity to be in a home is amazing, and let alone a home that we get to help build itself.”

She said moving is bittersweet.

“We really enjoyed bringing that much joy to the community in something that we just really enjoy doing ourselves,” she said of the Halloween display. And she’s sad fewer people will be able to see their decorations in their new yard.

“However, on the upside,” she said, “is we do have very young children, and we want to be able to go and do the trick-or-treating aspect ourselves, and not kind of be tied to the house to hand out candy.”

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Sophia Keshmiri can be reached at 603-283-0725, or skeshmiri@keenesentinel.com.

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