A costume comes off.A promise doesn't.

Name: Red Ribbon Spooktacular — Apopka, Florida
Start: 2026-10-24T13:00:00-04:00
End: 2026-10-24T15:00:00-04:00
Location: Apopka Community Center

Free. Costumes welcome, never required. Coloring and poster contests, prizes, and the people who help in your own county.

Oct 17 Saturday Marion, Ohio McKinley Park Drive 2:00 – 4:00 PM RSVP → Oct 20 Tuesday Sandusky, Ohio Strickfaden Park, 318 Bell Ave 5:00 – 7:00 PM RSVP → Oct 22 Thursday Eustis, Florida Eustis Community Center, 601 Northshore Dr 5:30 – 7:30 PM RSVP → Oct 24 Saturday Apopka, Florida Apopka Community Center, 519 S Central Ave 1:00 – 3:00 PM RSVP →

Last October — four towns, a few hundred kids, one promise each.

Children painting pumpkins at a Red Ribbon Spooktacular, prevention handouts on the table — Paint, pumpkins, and a prevention sheet on the same table.

Children in costume lining up at a resource table — Costumes optional. The line for the resource table was not.

A community vendor tent at the event in the park — Local businesses set up beside the county's helpers.

Why a red ribbon. It honors DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena, murdered in 1985. The National Family Partnership organized the first national Red Ribbon Week in 1988. It runs October 23–31 and is the country's oldest and largest drug-prevention campaign. These four events lead into it.

All events & RSVP Christmas is next →

Christmas 2026

Adopt a Child at Christmas

Every child on the board has a name.

Each tag is one real child who lost a parent to the opioid epidemic, in your county, this year. You take a tag, you buy for that child, you bring it back. That's the whole thing.

Step one · September 21

Applications open.

Caregivers apply for the children in their home. Opens Monday, September 21.

Step two · November 1

The boards go up.

Adoption boards appear at area businesses on November 1. Take a tag, shop for that child.

Step three

Find your county.

Locations are announced by county as businesses confirm. Check back — the list grows through October.

Last Christmas — every bag on that floor had a child's name on it.

A room filled with tagged Christmas gift bags ready for distribution — Sorted by name, by county, by family.

A box truck packed to the roof with wrapped Christmas gifts — One truck. That was one run, not the whole year.

Bicycles and wrapped gifts in the Project Noelle storeroom — Bikes get asked for more than anything else.

Applications & locations

Want to host a board at your business? That's the fastest way to help a whole county at once.