Ask anyone on Harborton Drive in Jacksonville’s Southside and they’ll say the “Haunt on Harborton” is the talk of the town.
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People come from all across Jacksonville, just to check out the Halloween spectacular, with neighbor Ashley Thomas filling her yard with countless decorations and moving animatronics.
“People be waiting on the outside [of the neighborhood] to come in,” Harborton Drive neighbor Victor O’Connor told Action News Jax Friday morning.” And the streets be so full it’s like a transit back and forth.”
Thomas says she’s spent thousands and thousands of dollars on the collection, slowly building it up over the years, all to raise money for “Skeletons for St. Jude,” a national initiative to raise money for St Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.
Five years since the program started, it’s now raised over $700,000 nationwide.
“I used to be a teacher, I had a student with leukemia, he’s thankfully doing great and thriving and has graduated high school and college now, but it’s always been something near and dear to my heart,” Thomas explained to Action News Jax.
Thomas told Action News Jax she’s run into some obstacles this year getting donations early. “Once I got cleaned up from [Hurricane] Helene, I had decorated, and then [Hurricane] Milton was coming, so then I had to take everything down,” she explained.
Nonetheless, Thomas tells Action News Jax she’s looking to keep the haunts and the important mission on Harborton Drive for years to come.
“Every little bit of donations we get counts,” Thomas pointed out Friday.
“I think it’s very important for the community to come together not just for the cause, but for the community,” added O’Connor.
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