 History2008We decided from the beginning of the pre-season that this was going to be our final year. So preparation took a bit of a different spin. The challenges of creating sets that would still frighten, and send chills up people's spines, yet not have to invest in too much new set work. The theme for the majority of the rooms became "the scariest of the past". We took the best sets, the best costumes, the best props and twisted and turned them into something even more frightening. We have to say that by far this was the most successful year. We had over 1200 guests in 6 nights. We scared people so bad, that we counted how many of them were so scared they either "peed or pooped" their pants!!! The weather cooperated, the line to get in was crazy long, we even had to turn away a tour bus one night… IT WAS INSANE. The number of hits to our website caused us to be ranked by google as one of the most popular. We were written up in the newspaper, and our website was linked on the local news & radio stations, not to mention the two reporters and the two college students all who wanted to interview us. Donations of food to the Merrick Food Shelf, over 40 bags of groceries, over several hundreds of pounds…helping those less fortunate. We have to say thanks to all the family and friends (teens & adults) that helped in the creation, crowd control, set design, web site maintenance, creatures & characters.. THANK YOU SO MUCH! A thank you also to our neighbors for their patience and support, because you are truly amazing! 2007For the 2007 Haunt, we started preparing the moment that we started taking down the 2006 Haunt. We met monthly with my aunt & uncle to start coming up with ideas, layouts, and sets and to start building some of the props. It then took us two month's worth of weekends to set up and build. This was our biggest build ever and my parents and I enjoyed the carpentry, painting, and creation involved; however, because of how detailed some of the builds were, we definitely spent more money in building the haunt last year. Since my family became the sole hosts & creators for this haunt it became a subject that we discussed and planned morning, noon & late into the night, for months on end! Once again, we considered our Haunt a huge success with over 1000 guests coming from near and far, many of them for the 2nd and 3rd time, as well as lots of new guests too! Much of our success is because of this AWESOME website and also because we have had three (now four!!!) successful years under our belt. Knowing that we could scare that many people, and help the Merrick Food shelves with the food donations was extremely satisfying! The weather wasn't as cooperative as last year with rain on Friday nights, but we made due, and we have our guests to thank as well, for coming out in the wet and windy weather!!! Many thanks to all who helped and I have to say it was really fun working with all of them! Thanks mom and dad for letting me turn our house into a Haunt and for the time, support and love-thanks guys! I also have to say thanks to my Aunt Tanya (website and sounding board & photos), Uncle Eric (for once again his "crazy" ideas), Uncle Larry (for the use of supplies & carpentry) & Uncle Mike (for carpentry & crowd control) - you guys really are the best! Thanks are also in order for all of our friends who helped to scare our visitors: Becca, Brandon, Brian, Chris, David, Drew, Dustin, Jake, Jeff, Johnny, Josh H., Josh T., Joy, Michelle, Mike, Nolan, Ryan, Steven, Tyler & Willy - we couldn't have done it without you!!! 2006The 2006 haunt took us two months to prepare for and create. There were more builds and more money spent in the making of our haunt. Since my friend Drew and I were both in high school, it became more of a challenge for both of us to get together and work on the haunt. My family took on an even bigger role in the creating and building of the haunt. (Thanks mom and dad! Thanks Uncle Larry & Uncle Mike [carpentry]. Thanks Aunt Tanya [website] and Uncle Eric [crazy ideas])! We had many new & returning guests due to this being our second year with the website and three years under our belt. We couldn't believe that our haunt brought over 1200 visitors in just 5 days. We felt so good when we brought over 800 pounds of donations to the Merrick Community Food Shelf just in time for Thanksgiving. Thanks are also in order for all of our friends who helped to scare our visitors: Brandon, Becca, Jeff, Kenzi, Katy, Jillian, Aric, Brian, Stephen, Johnny, Chris, Dan, Justin, Aaron and Bailey. Also, thank you to our crowd control, prop rebuilders and ticket takers (our moms and dads) and master photographers (Drew's dad, Tim and Aunt Tanya). With such a successful haunt in 2006, we decided to start the plans for the 2007 haunt in February of 2007! 2005In 2005 an official website was created by my Aunt Tanya along with links to various "haunt search engines". The www.kharisma.net/Fright-at-Night version of the website became the number one site on yahoo for 2 weeks running! Drew and I created new haunt scenes in a driveway filled tent, almost doubling our square footage. A haunted graveyard and several additions to the guest line added more scares and thrills. The 2005 haunt proved to be scarier, creepier, more realistic, bigger and better then 2004 in more ways than one. With almost 600 guests and over 300 pounds of food donated to the Meirick Food Shelf, the we felt a huge sense of pride and satisfaction. We immediately started to think about the upcoming year. 2004In 2004, my friend Drew and I (we were in middle school at the time) decided to pool our talents, ideas, and wide assortment of props, masks and costumes to create our first haunted house. With a bit of help from our moms & dads during the month of October, we worked on creating a 2-stall garage and attached car-port into an amateur, but realistic, scary haunted house. We called on some of our friends and were open for business Halloween Eve and Halloween Night. Over 100 people came through in 8 hours!!! Money raised this first year was applied to Drew's 8th grade class trip and my hockey tournament in Cranbrook, BC. Along with the money, 8 bags of food were collected and donated to Second Harvest Food Shelf.
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