A Jennings family has transformed their yard into a spooky display with pumpkins, giant skeletons, creepy clowns and other ghoulish creatures, and it’s all for a good cause.

When the sun goes down, scary sights and sounds bring the massive Halloween display at 903 East Nezpique Street to life as part of the Skeletons for St. Jude fundraiser.

This is the third year Monique and Jim Wood have decorated their front lawn for Halloween, but their first year partnering with Skeletons for St. Jude to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Halloween has always been a big part of Monique Wood’s life.

“It’s core memories for me from my childhood,” she said. “My mother always went all out for Halloween and Christmas. She built haunted houses in our garage and handed out treat bags, so it’s important to me to do the same not only for my children, but for all the kids in our community.”

Wood said the display brings so much joy to her family and is a group effort.

It takes the family a few weeks to fine tune all the lights and scenes for each mini display in the yard from the pumpkin patch to the graveyard, Wood said.

“We spend days setting up together and every night we go out together to turn everything on in anticipation of the parade that starts on our little dead end street,” she said. “So many parents tell us how their kids make them come by every night, or how they started passing weeks ago asking when we were going to have everything set up and ready.”

The family tries to add four to five new animatronics and tons of other little odds and ends like skeletons and jack-o-lanterns each year. This year, they added four giant skeletons towering over 12-feet and a handful of smaller ones.

“We usually start Labor Day weekend by setting up the animatronics, weather permitting, because hurricane season is so unpredictable,” Wood said. “We usually have everything up and running by the first week in October and we run all the way through Halloween night.”

Wood said the family gets nothing but positive feedback from their display.

“Everyone says it’s so different from the typical Halloween decor and there’s nothing else like it in the city,” she said.

The display is lit up Sunday-Thursday from dusk until 9:30 p.m. and until 10:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

It remains a drive-by until Halloween night when the family sets up a table to hand out treats to the community. They also allow children to get a little closer to the props for pictures.

The Woods stumbled across the Skeletons for St. Jude group on Facebook and felt compelled to participate in the fundraising event. The home is one of six homes in Louisiana and the only one in Southwest Louisiana participating in the Skeletons for St. Jude’s.

The family’s goal is to raise $1,000 this year.

All money raised goes directly to St. Jude’s to help defer the cost of treatment and living expenses incurred by the children and their families when they are receiving care at St. Jude’s.

Wood, who lost her mother to cancer in 2012, said she knows the toll it takes on a family.

“It’s a cause that I hold dear to my heart, because of my personal experiences,” she said. “I honestly couldn’t imagine being on that journey with one of my children, and my heart goes out to every family who has walked that path.”

Although the display is free, people can donate to St. Jude by scanning the QR code on a sign located in front of the haunted display. There is also a link on A Haunting on East Nezipque’s Facebook page as well as on the FrightMap app.