My name is Delia and I am 30 years old. I was born and raised in Chambersburg, Pa. I love to support small local businesses and watching our community grow. This weekend October 29th, 2022 we had our annual “Trick or Treat on Main St” in the Borough of Chambersburg.
My dad is a single father to my little sister. She is 11 years old. I won’t mention her name for her own privacy but she’s been bullied a lot in elementary, she’s very shy, and she has been through a lot. She was unsure whether she was going to go trick or treating, she didn’t want to be picked on for being too big or still going trick or treating.
Well, Friday night I called my dad again and asked if she wanted to join us, it’s something we do every year and I really wanted her to come if she wanted to. She said yes. Saturday morning I went and picked her up and she was so excited, we all were. We went downtown and started opposite of Coyle Free Library, all the kids were having fun, taking pictures, laughing and carrying on.
We got to Lotus Moon Gallery and Yoga, the kids were in a line and the lady in all black with a black hat sitting outside the shop, there was a little small table with a deck of cards on it, she looked at my LITTLE 11 year old sister and yelled “no not you” at her. My sister looked at me with tears in her eyes and walked away, I said “She’s a [expletive] child” and we all walked away. My sister was humiliated, she was in tears. I went up to her and I said don’t let that lady ruin your day, you can’t let her dictate whether you have fun, but she didn’t want to do it anymore.
The more we walked and the more I thought about it, the more upset I was at the actions of a business in our community who made the continuous decision to interact with our children and with our community. I turned to the public and stated what happened. This business then decided to respond to what happened by stating she had “standards” and how dare a child have the “audacity”, later it was deleted.
The community is outraged, the reasons behind why she was not in costume was unknown to this business and she belittled a child, she humiliated her, and she has no remorse for the affect she had on this child with her behaviors. She has not apologized, better yet she accused the child of “taking advantage” of the event and told her to “go buy her own bag of candy”
This business should not be allowed to participate in community events for families and children if this is the behavior she is going to display!
