'Soda Family' prepares for huge Halloween in Auburn Bay

A family in Auburn Bay in southeast Calgary gives out hundreds of 2-litre bottles of soda on Halloween.

A house in southeast Calgary is expected to be very, very busy on Halloween.

That’s because people in an Auburn Bay home -- the Soda Family-- will be giving out two-litre bottles of pop again this year for the 12th year.

And this Halloween, they’ve added family-sized bags of chips donated by Old Dutch.

A video of their unique idea went viral on social media during the pandemic, and since then, visitors have grown into the thousands.

This is the first year sponsors are taking care of the treats, alleviating the financial burden for the family, who started the event a dozen years ago by handing out flashlights on Halloween to kids in the community.

“This year, because there are a lot more people involved, we started getting ready for this at the beginning of October,” said homeowner Stacy Walton. “The slides were built in, put up a week ago where normally they wouldn’t be done until a few days before or even the day, just because it does take up a lot of the driveway.”

For safety reasons, the road around the house will only be accessible to residential traffic.

In past years, the street has attracted thousands of visitors -- and in an Instagram post, it said they were anticipating a turnout of around 4, 500 people this year, up from the 3,500 that turned out last year.

This year, the family will be accepting donations for the Calgary Food Bank and the Veterans Association Food Bank.