By Tim Leeds
There will be spooks and thrills galore at the Havre Jaycees Haunted House starting tomorrow and running through Halloween.
The haunted house, located in the old Fish World location at the Havre Holiday Village Shopping Center, will be open from 7 to 10 p.m. Friday, Oct. 27 through Tuesday, Oct. 31, Halloween. There will also be a "scare free" session on Saturday, Oct. 28 from 1 to 3 p.m, in conjunction with the Moonlight Madness celebration at the shopping center. The lights will remain on and the masks will come off at the haunted house during the scare free session.
The entrance to the haunted house will be from the outside, on the north side of the shopping center. The outside entrance is marked with an orange poster designating it as the haunted house.
Once inside, glow-in-the-dark necklaces, in a variety of colors, will be available for $3, and the 2000 Jaycees Demolition Derby and the Tour 2000 Havre Jaycees T-shirts will be available for $8 each. Entrance to the haunted house will be $3, or $2 with the donation of a non-perishable food item. For the scare free session, admission will be $1.50 or $1 with a non-perishable food item.
The Havre Jaycees have been working three nights a week, from 6 to 9 p.m., since Festival Days ended to get the haunted house ready. The interior of the suite has been divided into rooms and corridors, with a sound system set up for "spooky music," gusts of wind in areas, cobwebs, strobelights and decorations, as well as "live ghouls," Jaycees in costume.
Almost anything desired to scare you will be at the house: witches, werewolves, a foggy graveyard, faces coming out of windows, a mad scientist's laboratory, a butcher's room and more. There are special effects in many areas, on the walls, ceilings and floors.
Considerable work has gone into the project. Black plastic tarps divide the house, there are tunnels as well as corridors and rooms, and even special corridors to bypass some of the more difficult areas. Special effects have been created using PCV pipes, glow-in-the-dark dots, a variety of spooky and gruesome decorations, and a lot of ingenuity.
The Havre Jaycees have been running the haunted house for six years now. The proceeds are used for Jaycees service activities. This year, the funds will go towards the Jaycees Christmas Shopping Spree, where Jaycees shop for needy children for the holiday season. The Jaycees shopped for 50 children last year, and Jaycee Chamene Griggs said they expect to shop for about as many again this year. The Jaycees will again use their "Block of Bucks" fundraiser to raise additional funding for the shopping spree.
Food items donated during the haunted house will be distributed to local charities by the Jaycees.
