With the heat of summer upon us, very few of us are thinking of Halloween. But one local business has been using the lazy days of summer to plan for the holiday’s fun.

Brian South, Michael Rosander and Michaels Ammar conjured up a successful Kickstarter campaign, ending Thursday evening, which puts the “trick” back into Trick-or-Treating. Their campaign — which had almost doubled its funding goal as of the Daily Herald deadline Tuesday night — aims to give kids and parents a magical alternative to candy (instead of those “fun” toothbrushes the neighborhood dentist always hands out).

South and his team own Discover Magic, a company based in South’s Payson home that empowers and educates kids through magic skills. They started the company in 2015 with a goal to teach children in every neighborhood around the United States life skills through magic.

“Magic is character building, and helps the child become confident but humble, giving, and able to look others in the eye. In this day of video games and texting, it helps them unplug and really connect with others,” South said.

The Discover Magic team centers all their products and classes around this idea of connection.

“At Halloween, when a kid gets a candy, they open it up and eat it. There’s not much sharing going on. But if they get one of these tricks in their bag, then they learn it and can share it again and again,” South said.

The Kickstarter campaign has been focused on mini-tricks that come in a packet, similar to Pokemon trading cards. There are eight different packets, each with its own trick that children can quickly learn, practice and perform.

“This gives them a storytelling experience, and makes it about the audience’s experience,” South said. “The point is to make kids comfortable at talking, and engage them in the communication process.”

The current campaign has enchanted about 300 backers, and caught the eye of the ticket arcade market. South said if continues to do well, they will look at doing another round of new cards for next Halloween.

The men at Discover Magic also recently won $10,000 in a UPS Store small business competition. Then by invitation, they also recently presented at the International Brotherhood of Magicians and Society of American Magicians conference in Kentucky. But these guys are dedicated to reaching kids.

“We’re hoping to get on the radar for the Boys and Girls Clubs. We want to be teaching tens of thousands of kids,” South said. “It is really an amazing program, and can really make a difference for these kids.”

South knows what he’s talking about, because he’s been doing magic since he was very young, and is a professional magician. But this company is his passion, because it’s where all his “magic skills and ideas collide,” and it helps children build self-confidence, creativity, and social skills in a safe and friendly environment.