A Worcester resident, Alex Cornwell, spent the past two weeks celebrating Halloween displaying nearly 200 inflatables, along with animatronics. The attraction helped raise money for a local nonprofit, Why Me, dedicated to helping families affected by childhood cancer.
The Cornwell Holiday Display spread Halloween fun while helping a crucial cause, making it this week’s pick for our weekly Joy Beat! Cornwell joined GBH’s All Things Considered Host Arun Rath to explain how spooky attractions could be more than just a good fright — and how he makes that happen. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of their conversation.
Arun Rath: Very happy to have you. Big Halloween fans here and love everything about this. Give us the origin story. Did this start off small and get bigger and bigger? How did you get to where you are right now?…