Thread: Charity Haunt - Need Advice

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Hey gang,

I was asked to run a kid friendly haunt down at the fair grounds for the humane society fund raiser. Since its in 2 weeks I figured I could fit it into my schedule.

Anyhow I was told that it is in the heritage building which is the oldest building in town. So what I do know is that I have to leave no impact on the environment. No holes in the walls, no fog machines and so on. I am meeting with the grounds keeper tommorow night. So I wanted to ask you all if you could share your experience with this kind of setup and any suggestions on specific questions I should ask?

thanks,

Bubbs

I've never done anything like that but I would say lots of lighting effects, led candles & sound effects. The only impact would be to the ears & eyes

Be sure the Humane Society's insurance will cover the haunt. You may need to have them take out a separate rider for this. There may be permit requirements and the haunt will likely need to be inspected by the fire marshal. Be sure to document the use of fire retardant materials throughout the haunt. The electrical system running the props must be up to code as well.

Think about security during the event and between shows. Will the props be secure when the fairgronds are closed? Who will be in charge of parking, ticket sales, printing the tickets & posters, advertising, etc.? Will you have an accountant or someone to match ticket sales with money received? There will be an accounting of proceeds required for a non-profit agency fund raiser. Please be sure to have an independant 3rd party compare the funds to the # of tickets sold. That is a sound financial control to have in place for this type of cash intensive event. Be sure to have an adequate supply of small denomination bills so you can easily make change, as most folks will be paying with $20's.

I am the co-chair of our Lion's Club Haunted Hayride and Barn. There is a lot of up front work besides the fun stuff. I will repeat, be sure to use and document the use of fire retardant materials everywhere in the haunt. You don't want anyone or the historic building being harmed in any way.

There is alot that goes into running a charity haunt, but it is always worth the effort.

Eric

I have posed the question of insurance, so thank you for that note. I guess I will know more of what I am getting into tommorow. The fund raiser is being run by others, so this is just a side extension. It is also running from 12pm to 5pm one day, so I dont have to worry to much about people doing naughty things. Looking at it as simple way to ease into the more public haunts. Non the less im sure I got my work cut out for me.

If you can do the fun stuff while others handle the administrative stuff, I am really happy for you! The only other question I would ask is what your budget is. That will let you know the direction to move in for decorating.

If it is a creepy old building, use darkness with accent lighting and shadows to your advantage. Cover the windows with black plastic if necessary. Darkness allows the viewer's mind to fill in all the scary stuff they think is there, but may not be. Build suspense before each scene. That will allow for a longer build up of tension and make the haunt seem longer. Being a kid friendly haunt will make it fun, but keeping it spooky without gore or serious scares will make it memorable.

Eric

We are kind of the same way. In a mall, we can drill some holes, but we want to leave for the most part as we found it, or better.

A challange has been to build the walls/mazes, so they are strudy and safe without connecting much to the walls. We started out with a hugh square of 2x4's with fire retardant black plastic covering them for this year. there are halls/rooms on all sides and the inside of the square is the control room. So the structure supports itself and we did inside kickers on all 4 sides (2x4s coming down to the floor with a brace toenailed into the bottom 2x4. Ofcourse you can only do this on the inside, as it would be in the path of the patrons. We will probably spray some glow in the dark paint on them as not to trip over them in the control room area.

Also a good trick is to extend ot a 4 ft 2x4 from the tops of the maze wall frames that just sticks out and leans against the building wall structure, it is not attached. This is good in the middle of a long wall run 9where the wall will kind of bow out and lean) if the building structure wall is the other side of the path. Firms the maze/hall wall up pretty well for us.