{"id":27491,"date":"2025-10-31T03:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-31T03:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/27491\/"},"modified":"2025-10-31T03:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T03:43:08","slug":"funeral-homes-trunk-or-treat-sparks-joy-in-a-typically-sorrowful-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/27491\/","title":{"rendered":"Funeral home&#8217;s Trunk-or-Treat sparks joy in a typically sorrowful place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) \u2014 Usually a place for mourning, a funeral home transformed into a place of music, candy, and community spirit as it opened its doors for Halloween fun.<\/p>\n<p>Culley&#8217;s MeadowWood Funeral Home is hosted a family-friendly Trunk or Treat event Thursday.The event brought neighbors together for fun, food, and fellowship.Watch the video below to hear what local residents thought about the event.<\/p>\n<p>Local funeral home brings joy to the grave with first \u201cTrunk or Treat\u201d event<\/p>\n<p>BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:<\/p>\n<p>A place known for remembrance turned into a place of joy Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI definitely see this as something that can take off, so I&#8217;d like to see what it grows up to be,\u201d said neighbor David Lamb.<\/p>\n<p>Culley\u2019s MeadowWood Funeral Home hosted its first-ever Trunk or Treat.<\/p>\n<p>Dozens of families filled the parking lot with children in costumes, parents with cameras, and volunteers handing out candy. There were food trucks, music playing from a hearse, and lots of laughter.<\/p>\n<p>Attendees David and Kristina Lamb say it&#8217;s an idea that deserves to continue.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like cemeteries themselves are family-oriented. You come here to be with loved ones that you don&#8217;t see anymore, so why not have a family event that can bring some joy to it,\u201d Kristina Lamb said.<\/p>\n<p>Across the country, Trunk-or-Treats are among the fastest-growing Halloween traditions.<\/p>\n<p>According to the National Retail Federation, Halloween spending is projected to reach $13.1 billion nationwide in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral director Wade Bodiford says Thursday&#8217;s event made the funeral home feel more like a festival.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI talked to some folks, and they were very, very pleased that we did this this year. They&#8217;re excited for next year, and we even had some folks drive up from Perry,\u201d Bodiford said.<\/p>\n<p>The event has sparked conversation online. Some praised the creativity, while others questioned the setting.<\/p>\n<p>Neighbor Timmy Wimes lives nearby. He says he understands both sides but sees no harm in the idea.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone has their opinion and views about it, but for the kid&#8217;s sake, it&#8217;s only one day. It&#8217;s only two or three hours. I don&#8217;t think that it would hurt or harm anything,\u201d Wimes said.<\/p>\n<p>Bodiford says his goal is simple. He wants to bring people together and show that joy can live anywhere, even where people expect only sorrow.<\/p>\n<p>Although this was their first Trunk-or-Treat, organizers say they intend to bring this event back for years to come.<\/p>\n<p>Want to see more local news? Visit the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wtxl.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WTXL ABC 27 Website. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Stay in touch with us anywhere, anytime.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WTXLABC27\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Like us on Facebook<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow us on<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wtxlabc27\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Instagram <\/a>and <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/abc27\" rel=\"nofollow\">X.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) \u2014 Usually a place for mourning, a funeral home transformed into a place of music,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27492,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[8498,28,20526,1289,8499,232,234,233,1340,562],"class_list":["post-27491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-abc-27-news","tag-florida","tag-funeral-home","tag-leon-county","tag-northeast-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-trunk-or-treat","tag-wtxl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27491"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27491\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}