Jennifer Smith

Whew! What a weekend!

Thanks to the extraordinary efforts of our organizers, volunteers and sponsors, the first annual Milton Haunted House exceeded all expectations. We're still tallying expenses and working out our exact totals, but we're definitely going to be presenting a sizable cheque to the Milton District Hospital Foundation. And next year is sure to be even bigger and better.

What was truly amazing about this event was the short period of time in which it was all brought together. Rick Di Lorenzo first contacted Zeeshan Hamid and myself around the beginning of June with his crazy idea for a summertime Haunted House. Somehow over the next eight weeks we managed to make arrangements with the Pirate Festival and MDHF, set up the website and Facebook page, line up corporate sponsors, recruit a couple of dozen volunteers, run two promotional events, distribute promotional material, send out press releases... and that was before we even had to set anything up!

Our volunteers were incredible. Having donned a couple of those costumes myself over the weekend, I can tell you that there are few things more unpleasant than wearing a full head rubber mask inside a tent with the humidex in the high thirties. Ick. And some of them kept at it for hours and hours.

This is why Halloween is in the fall.

We had a number of local notables come out and help - Mike Cluett, Jan Mowbray, Carey dePass, Colin Best and his son, Donna Danielli and her daughter, to name but a few.  What surprised me was the number of folks who came all the way from Toronto and elsewhere. I wish I knew all their names, but many were associated with the Toronto Zombie Walk and just came out to dress up, have fun, and help with a good cause.

Extra special thanks to Jennifer Sheehan who did some great make-up effects for several of the characters, thus sparing them from having to wear the dreaded rubber masks. More of that next year, please.

I also want everyone to know that while Zeeshan and I worked pretty hard on all this, our efforts were nothing compared to Rick's. Not only did he provide the props, costumes and decor, he also found most of the volunteers, got pretty much all of the sponsorship money lined up, and worked literally from dawn to dusk setting up and tearing down this enormous attraction. So if anyone in Ward 7 is wondering if Rick Di Lorenzo will work hard for them on council, I can pretty much guarantee that the answer is yes.

Here are a few photos from the weekend. We all managed to forget to bring our cameras (doh!), so I took these with my phone. Hopefully more will be trickling in from the press and others who were there.





See you next year!

UPDATE: Here's a link to the article in the Milton Champion, and the one in Snap! Milton. More to come!