Halloween decorations on a front porch, including a skeleton with a veil, paper bats and pumpkins, and fake cobwebs

A Community Strategies program in Winchendon decked out for Halloween

A skeletal specter in a long black veil hangs over a porch in Winchendon, Mass. A ghoulish hand stretches out from under a coffin lid on a lawn in Brockton. Cobwebs and bats hover over trees and doorways, and jack o’-lanterns line walkways and front steps.

The spooky scenes across CRJ’s residential programs spring up each year for the Halloween House Decorating Contest. This year, Community Strategies’ residential programs were the big winners, with CS houses taking the top three prizes.

The staff and residents at a house in Winchendon scared away the competition for first place for most creative house. They’ll be celebrating with their prize — a pizza party.

In second place, taking the prize for scariest house was the Abington residence, and in third, with the prize for best homemade decorations, was the house in Keene, New Hampshire. The staff and residents in Abington and Keene will enjoy a fall breakfast, complete with apple cider and cider doughnuts in recognition of their wins.

A Halloween decoration in the form of a woman with glowing red eyes

Abington

 

Jack o'-lanterns arranged on the front steps of a home

Keene