Abe Snowman’s Yeti Cave / Ravensquared have participated in community Halloween and Christmas festivities for the last few years, scaling up to bringing cauldrons of candy and chocolate coins to Trunk or Treat events in a bright red converted ambulance named “Slay Ride” and bringing joy to the 2025 Iola Christmas parade in a brightly-lit urban-camo painted HMMWV with a full holiday living room diorama in the bed, complete with fireplace and waving children by the Christmas tree.
This year, we sold the HMMWV and acquired a retired school bus, which is being converted to a haunted pirate bus - complete with most of the decorations, special effects, lighting, and animatronics that have been on display in our yard in past years. The costs and labor for this conversion are covered and mostly complete at this point, and I expect to be ready to bring scares and smiles to Trunk or Treat in Iola and possibly Moran and other communities - except for one small issue…
Where in years past, I had the good fortune to be gainfully employed by IBM at a rather comfortable wage, I was laid off in Oct 2025. We had already purchased the candy and honestly, I needed the positive interaction with the community and enjoyed participating in both holiday events. However, in the past year, I have not been able to replace the lost income and our family’s budget is stretched thinner than it has been in over 20 years, and I have sold most of my equipment and tooling, and we will be moving soon.
I am not asking for charity for our personal challenges, though. What I am asking is for those who enjoyed our displays and participation in the past to consider throwing a few coins at us so we can participate once again and bring smiles to children and adults alike in southeast Kansas.
Our expenses last year for Trunk or Treat candy and chocolate was roughly $450. The same quantity of assorted candy and gold chocolate coins in bulk this year is going to cost roughly $630. We’d like to make an appearance at multiple communities in the area, if possible, which means buying more candy and chocolate… and fuel. I simply cannot afford it this year, but I am more than willing to load up candy, a dragon, a scarecrow, a giant spider, a ghoul, a few DJ lights, and a couple of fog machine and anyone who wants to come along and make this Halloween another one the kids will remember!
All contributions to this fundraiser will be used for candy to be distributed at public community events and only public events. For every $200 over $400 we will add another event to the schedule and I will send out emails and publicly post on the Abe Snowman’s Yeti Cave Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube pages where we will be, along with photos and videos from each event. If we hit the goal of $2000, we will be tossing candy Mardis Gras-style on the Iola square at every possible opportunity between Oct 15 and Dec 31 - I still need a few more days to finish paint and electrical on the bus!
Will you help us bring a joyful holiday season to southeast Kansas? Every contribution helps and is appreciated, and I thank you for reading and sharing. - Trey Garland, aka “Abe Snowman”
