The Monster Bash Haunted House [2012]

Opening October 10 - Our first year, we didn't theme out the haunted house. We just put together a series of scares which our volunteer students, families and locals had fun building. A lot of people enjoyed the experience of having some fun and getting more than a few scares out of the efforts of all those volunteers, especially because we initially had the Haunted House available every day of the week! The non-themed event had all sorts of strange rooms and encounters. From a living room that looked normal, but wasn't, to a mad scientist and a Frankenstein-like monster (ours might have been taller than the Karloff original!), a torture chamber and the rather spooky-weird "baked potato room". There was a little something for everyone! Strangely (in hindsight), we didn't have a clown this first year. Those would come later, however! For this and the first 5 years, we held the haunt at the Harmony Community Center in the Gym. We had to work fast, and built the haunt in just 3 days with all the volunteers. We then tore down after the last guest left on Halloween so the Community Center could have the use of their gym again! After tear-down during those first years, all our props, walls and costumes had to be transported to remote storage areas for the off-season, thanks to helpful local organizations and churches. You may have noticed that the pumpkin that was used for the logo of our first-ever Haunted House effort looks familiar? That's because we liked the pumpkin so much, it has since been "adopted" and become the main logo for the organization!