CYNTHIANA, Ky. (LEX 18) — The people of Cynthiana go all out when it comes to Spooky Season.
From the moment you enter the city limit, the spirit of Halloween is strong, a skeleton in every store and front yard you see.
However, there's one spot on Pike Street where the skeletons are sitting patiently, waiting for someone to take them home.
“Every Halloween or every fall, we open our skeleton adoption agency," Cynthiana Tourism Coalition executive director Tomi Clifford said
“It's funny to us because there's a pile of skeletons in our office where we have to bring them down to be adopted.”
A simple mission to get skeletons into their forever family.
The initiative was born during the pandemic, trying to lift people up during a difficult while also trying to advance Cynthiana as a tourist attraction.
“We decided we wanted to be the number one fall destination in Kentucky. To do that you have to have decorations and you have to have festivals so it kind of snowballed from there," Clifford said.
“I think the first year we purchased 100 or 125 and had them for adoption. We decided it was probably better to say come and adopt a skeleton for your family instead of come purchase a skeleton but it was geared toward our community members originally to get them to come in and decorate.”
In five years, the agency has grown into much more than just a community pick me up.
People from all over the state and the country have come to Cynthiana specifically to adopt a skeleton.
“There has been people from Indiana, Ohio, Georgia, Tennesee, Canada, Las Vegas," Gwen Stidham said.
"People from all over. It is just so astounding that they want to come here from states and states away just to adopt a skeleton and see what our town is all about.”
Tourism leaders have even taken calls from Italy asking to send skeletons internationally.
It's proof Clifford's original plan worked.
The simplicity of the Skeleton Adoption Agency has allowed the Cynthiana community to lean into the spirit of Halloween while attracting the rest of the nation (and really the world) to be in on the fun.
“We’re a close knit community, I think Cynthiana is 60-100 people in the city. To see people start decorating in the city in September and start talking about their plans about how their going to decorate their skeletons in their yard as early as July. It’s a lot of fun to see," Clifford said.
If you want to learn more about the Skeleton Adoption Agency, click here.
