After neighbors heaped praise on the Mr. Trash Wheel costume that Henry Kearns and his dad Robert built for Halloween in 2021, the pair knew they had to bring their trick-or-treating to the next level.
“People really responded to a Baltimore-themed costume,” Robert said. “We thought, ‘well, how do we top that?’ and we thought about other things that are iconic in Baltimore.”
The answer turned out to be a mile down Key Highway from their Federal Hill home.
“We live just down the street from the sugar factory,” Robert said. “We see it every day and we thought what better way to get candy than to be a sugar factory?”
The brick Domino Sugar factory with its smokestacks is easy to spot from across the Patapsco River, especially at night by the light of its iconic sign. The factory’s original neon sign lit up the Baltimore skyline from 1951 until 2021, when it was replaced with an LED sign that continues to illuminate the city’s waterfront.
To create the costume, Henry and Robert assembled the main structure with cardboard and hot glue, spray painted the exterior on their home parking pad, and topped it off with luminescent wire to make the Domino Sugar sign. Inside, a motor kit powers a ramp that tilts candy from a trough to Henry’s hand.
“It’s kind of a hobby of mine to sort of do some little electronics and stuff, and this was an excuse to do that,” Robert said. “He’s got a little joystick in there and he can press it and the crane lifts up and the candy slides into the factory for collection.”
Henry has the whole system worked out for loading up on candy.
“We have a little box inside the costume,” he explained. “Candy slides down and the force of the sliding pushes it into a little hole where there is a platform with walls. It collects it and when it gets too full and it starts dropping candy out of it, we will put a bag under it and I will take out the candy and put it in the bag.”
The costume has already caught the attention of the Domino Sugar company.
“We were all very impressed and proud of Henry’s ingenious Halloween costume,” said a spokesperson for ASR Group, owner of the Domino Sugar refinery. “We shared the video of him and his working costume on our digital signage throughout the refinery last week for all our employees and they were excited to see his enthusiasm for the work they do each day making sugar right here in South Baltimore.”
The company is even interested in hiring Henry – once he’s of age.
“When he’s looking for a job, our engineering team would like to talk to him,” the company said.
Henry enjoys building with Legos and helping his dad with other projects. But he has his eyes set on a career path that will have him working more closely with the sweets.
“I’m gonna start a bakery,” Henry said.
The pair haven’t decided yet on next year’s Halloween costume, but they’re open to suggestions for another creation to charm the residents of Charm City.
“We’re brainstorming what can be the next Baltimore icon and haven’t come up with anything yet, but I’m sure we’ll come up with something,” Robert said. “We love Baltimore and love making stuff that people respond to, so we’ll come up with something fun.”
