Masons haunted house bigger success

by Jolene Perron

Members of The House of Shalom Youth Centre in Amherstburg are more than pleased with the amount of people at their third annual haunted house.
The haunted house was originally started over 10 years ago at the AMA Sportsmen’s Association in Amherstburg by the Mason family. The Sportsmen’s club was no longer able to host it at their location due to a difficulty acquiring volunteers.
Three years ago Holly Kirk-McLean, coordinator of the youth centre, and the Masons sat down to discuss the possibilities of having the haunted house at the House of Shalom.
“It was an awesome way for our members to get the community service hours they need,” said Kirk-McLean. “It was also another way to show the community that the House is very viable, that it’s very active and it gets them in our building.”
Three years later, Kirk-McLean and her activities coordinator, Rebecca Deline said they are proud of the enthusiasm of their members. They had over 100 volunteers, 88 of which were teenaged members.
“It seemed like there were more people coming [to the haunted house] and more volunteers to help out,” said Robert O’Reilly, a member of the House of Shalom Youth Centre.
Deline executed the production of the haunted house with the assistance of her intern Angie Genovese. However, Deline she saidshe could not have done everything if it weren’t for the volunteers.
“It’s humbling, people can say that it’s my baby …  but really all I did was organize it and put the right people in the right places,” said Deline. “The members were incredible with doing things out on their own. Some of the scenes they not only built but they came up with. I’ve really just been blessed to have very creative very dedicated people that were there to help.”
Deline also said members dedicated 50 to 60 hours a week in the production of the haunted house over the last two months.
“Last year we didn’t have as many people,” said Genovese. “We had about 600 people last year, and this year we had over 800. I think that’s a pretty good upgrade.”
This year the haunted house had bigger scenes and included a new outdoor straw maze, which consisted of 600 bales of hay donated by the Windsor Essex Parkway Project. The Masons designed the hay bale maze by themselves and Deline said it was very successful.
“I think the fact that everyone now has a couple years experience with it, everything ran a lot smoother than it usually does,” said Deline. “The grade 11s and 12s have now done it the whole time we’ve been doing it, so they were able to help the younger members.”
Deline also commented on the relationship the members have developed with the Masons in the last three years. She attributed this relationship to the amount of responsibility the members were allowed to have this year.
“I’m really proud of how everybody pulled together this year,” said Kirk-McLean. “Anything that came up, we didn’t have to worry about it because all of our volunteers are just absolutely incredible.”
The entrance fee was $5 a person. In December the Masons will subtract the combined costs to create the maze and the House of Shalom will receive a donation from the profits.