East New York retired teacher decorated NYCHA hallway and help children in need

EAST NEW YORK, Brooklyn (PIX11) -- In a neighborhood where children sometimes can’t always afford new costumes or candy, a Brooklyn great-grandma is a community hero of sorts, decorating her entire hallway and giving costumes and candy to children in her community in need.

Elizabeth Figueroa, 60, is a retired teacher who loves children. So every holiday for the past 41 years, she has planned and strategized how to help the children in her East New York community enjoy the holiday.

The doors to the elevators on the seventh floor open, and it gets creepy. 

Elizabeth Figueroa gave PIX11 News a tour of her haunted hallway at the Penn-Wortman houses.

Every square inch of the walls of her hall was covered in lights, skeletons, and cobwebs. Figueroa starts decorating in the summer.

She said it takes several months, hours a day, to get all the spooky details just right, a tradition that the neighborhood talks about. Luz Gonzalez heard about it and is seeing it for the first time.

From Hollywood horror favorites like Freddie Krueger, Chucky to Jack Nicholson in the shining,
Even her husband dresses the part. Figueroa said she does it because she knows that some of the children in her neighborhood need some help with the cost of the costumes and candy. In addition, she says it fills her heart with joy to see them smile. 

Figueroa also decorates for Christmas, Easter, and Valentine’s Day. She starts decorating for Christmas the day after Halloween.