Mark’s Haunted Garage

As of this writing, I have not yet been asked to build the haunted house for Spooktacular at Harris Hill elementary school this year. Since I had been asked by this date last year, I am assuming that I will not be doing Spooktacular this year, which means that I can dedicate all my time to working on my own haunt for this year. If someone should ask me at some point later this year, I will consider their request based on how close it is to Halloween when they ask and how far along I am with preparations for my own haunt. I am still very interested in doing it this year. I just hope that if they do ask me, there is still enough time for me to do it right and not sacrifice my own haunt in the process.

The WNY Haunters held there third gathering of 2008 at Katy and Alan’s house in Liverpool, NY. 15 adults attending, including our newest member, Bill. From what I could tell, Bill will fit in very nicely. Several of the members built the project for this gathering…a rising spirit. Pictures taken during the gathering are posted at http://wny-haunters.markshauntedgarage.com/2008/gathering3/index.php

I was in the basement with my 3 year old son, who is into pirates big-time. He saw the coffin and asked me what it was. I told him it was for the vampire. He looked at me and said, “Vampirate?” I said to myself, “Hmmm. Possible new prop idea?” He’s only 3 and already getting interesting ideas, even if he doesn’t realize what he’s doing.

The third gathering of 2008 of the WNY Haunters has been scheduled for Sunday, May 25 and Katy and Alan’s home in Liverpool, NY. The Make-n-Take project we are planning to build is an animated rising spirits display, as demonstrated in this video.

The WNY Haunters held their second gathering at Mark and Susan’s house in Penfield, NY.  11 adults attended.  The forecast called for a high of 73 and rain all afternoon, but it got up to 83, and it didn’t start raining until about 3:30, so we were able to spend a lot more time in the back yard than I expected.  We didn’t work on any projects at this gathering either, but Bogie did make a list of projects we can work on during future gatherings.  I will be posting those projects in another post, hopefully in the next few days.

The WNY Haunters held their first gathering of 2008 at Josh and Emma’s house in Romulus, NY. 12 adults and 2 children attended. We didn’t work on any projects during this gathering. It was just a time to get together, chat, discuss old experiences, and plan new ones for next year. Katy and Alan showed off their new toy they had picked up just that morning — a new hearse. Josh and Emma did a great job hosting their first ever gathering. The food was excellent and plentiful. My son Allen had a great time playing with Tyler and Shane. I enjoyed myself. It was great seeing everyone.

Another Halloween has come and gone. This one, however, was much more successful than last year in terms of the number of people that went through Mark’s Haunted Garage. We gave candy to 106 people, and I estimate that at least 40 more people went through without taking candy, so we’re calling it 150 people. I also had 23 people go through during the open house on 10/28, so the total is around 173 people that went through the garage on the two nights. Last year, by 6:45 on Halloween night, no one had shown up yet. This year, I had a couple kids waiting as I finished opening the door and putting up the wall panels. Quite a difference from last year, which was our first year in Penfield, NY. I estimate that no more than 30 people went through the haunted garage last year. The article in the Penfield Post and my running the haunted house during the Harris Hill Spooktacular made a big difference, I am sure.

It was also successful in that everything worked as designed. The rocking chair was the only thing I had to mess around with periodically, but that was expected, so I don’t consider that to be an issue.

I would like to thank Roger Leete for being my one and only actor this year, since my brother Terry had to work that night.

The Spooktacular haunted house at Harris Hill elementary school ended up working out very nicely. Power turned out to not be a problem. We were able to get everything set up by 5pm, which gave us enough time to go back to the house, grab a bite to eat, get into costume, and get back in time for the opening. All the electronic props worked as designed, although the stirring witch was looking pretty sad by the end of the night. She will need to be reworked before I use her again. But otherwise, everything went very well, and I’m told we received very good reviews. I have let the people who ran Spooktacular this year know that my crew and I are interested in doing it again in 2008, and asked them to pass that on to whoever will be organizing Spooktacular next year. We’ll see if they ask us to come back. I hope they do, as I enjoyed the experience very much.

I would like to thank those who helped me set up and run the haunted house. The set up crew consisted of Susan Mraz, Terry Mraz, Shane Estelle, Randy Makoski, and Dan Gardner. The actors during the event were Terry Mraz, Shane Estelle, and Faith Barbe, while Susan floated in and out from time to time when she wasn’t chasing after our 3 year old son, Allen.

On Monday, October 22, 2007, Renee Taylor from the Penfield Post stopped by to interview me about Mark’s Haunted Garage. Later that afternoon, Penfield Post photographer Carrie Ann Grippo stopped by to take some pictures for Renee’s article.

On Thursday, October 25, 2007, Renee’s article appeared on the front page of the Penfield Post. This was the first time Mark’s Haunted Garage has ever appeared in the media. I was very happy with the end result. I thought the article came out very well. On my web site, I have both a text version of the article, as well as a version I scanned in. The scanned in version is in two parts, part 1 and part 2.

I had my tour of the area today, although I did not meet the principal. There’s really only two areas to set up displays. One is moderate size, and one is fairly large, where the audience will walk around 3 sides of it. I may investigate hanging a piece of cloth down the middle of this area to turn it into two areas. Power will be my main concern as there is only one outlet in each of the two areas. Hope the fire marshal doesn’t have a problem with extension cords and power strips, since that’s what will be needed. Still, it’s definitely do-able, and I think it will get me some good publicity for my haunted garage. I’d say at this point that it is pretty much a sure thing I’ll be doing it, barring something unforeseen.