For kids, October鈥檚 perennial question is 鈥渨hat are you going to be for Halloween?鈥�

For parents 鈥� especially this year 鈥� that question is 鈥渉ow am I going to afford another Halloween costume?鈥�

This year, three branches of the Vancouver Island Regional Library (Campbell River, Courtenay and Nanaimo) will be holding Halloween costume exchanges, which should help answer both of those questions.

鈥淟ast year Campbell River was the first library to do that in Vancouver Island Regional Library, and now Courtenay is also doing the costume swap and as well as all of the libraries in Nanaimo,鈥� said Campbell River library manager Jo毛lle Samson. 鈥淟ibraries are really geared towards supporting the exchange economy. We do this with with books and other library materials, and we鈥檙e happy to do it with Halloween costumes.鈥�

The idea is that people can bring in their gently used, washed costumes any time before the exchange. Then on the day of the exchange, those who have donated can bring in a voucher and have their pick of the costumes available. Then in the afternoon the remaining costumes will be available to the public in general.

For Campbell River, costumes can be dropped off at the library any time until Oct. 20, and people can come pick out their costumes on Oct. 21. Drop offs for Courtenay are open until Oct. 10, with the swap day on Oct. 11. In Nanaimo, costumes can be dropped off at all three branches until Oct. 13, and the swap will be held at the Harbour-Front branch on Oct. 14.

The Campbell River branch is running a Terrifying Tales writing contest, and will also be holding its Books for Treats event on Oct. 31 from 3 p.m. until 5:30 p.m.

Details are available on each branch鈥檚 Facebook page.

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