Residents search for costumes at the Spirit Halloween store in Tyler in 2015. (Tyler Morning Telegraph File)

1. New York park holds 25th annual Halloween dog parade
2. Hundreds pour into Tyler Halloween store

Spirit Halloween store owners and Shreveport natives Steve and Charlotte Gomez share a passion for making a fun-filled Halloween season for the East Texas community, and they make it known their store is family friendly.

The Spirit Halloween store, 3717 S. Broadway in Tyler, opened its doors on Labor Day weekend and will stay open until Nov. 2. The store sells Halloween d￩cor, costumes and Halloween-inspired displays.

“We are from the Shreveport-Bossier area, and the business just kind of fell into our lap after Steve was asked to operate a Halloween store in Longview after spending 10 years in a liquidator business,” Mrs. Gomez said. “After two seasons of doing that, we both had decided this was it and he left the liquidation company.”

As Shreveport-Bossier natives, Mrs. Gomez said, since the first year running the Spirit Halloween store, she carries Mardi Gras beads by the front desk area that are left from the parades in her hometown and will offer them to small children who seem afraid of the displays or costumes.

“I will hand them the strand of sparkly beads and tell them scary things do not like sparkly things,” Mrs. Gomez said. “I’ll tell them if they see something scary to shake the sparkly beads at them, and it won’t bother you.”

According to Mrs. Gomez, the top selling costumes of the season, so far, are characters from “Descendants,” a Disney movie based off of the 2014 film, “Maleficent.” The trending costumes for adults are super heroes, fantasy-inspired characters and Star Wars characters.

During Halloween, the Gomez family also coordinates an ongoing fundraiser that goes toward the Shriners Hospitals for Children’s Spirit of Children program. There are buckets at the front of the store for guests to donate loose change.

Last year’s collection raised $30,500, and there is a large check on the wall by the front registers to show all the money raised that went to the cause. The Gomez family said 100 percent of the money donated will go to the program.

“This fundraiser will go on every year; most donations are $2, but last year one lady wrote me a $2,000 check,” Mrs. Gomez said. “The money goes to help make hospitals a little less scary for kids at Shriners.”

TWITTER: @TMTMelissa