Story originally printed in the Onalaska Life or online at www.onalaskalife.com
Published - Friday, October 08, 2004
Jaycees' haunt farm this year
It's not easy trying to find a suitable place to build a haunted house. The Onalaska Area Jaycees have tried ... and succeeded. If you're looking to be scared this Halloween, the old haunted house has moved.
The Jaycees will open their annual haunted house this weekend, which means there will be four full, scary weekends ahead.
The Jaycees built the new haunted house from the ground up.
"It's all brand new this year," said Jaycees President Lynn St. Jacque. "That's why we didn't know if we'd have it done this weekend."
But they did have it done and it's in a brand new location in one of the barns at Clearwater Farm.
For the last six years the Jaycees have held the haunted house in a group of mobile homes behind Woodman's, but "the trailers are tired," St. Jacque said.
The haunted house is traditionally the Jaycees' biggest fundraiser.
During their time haunting the trailers, the Jaycees noticed a drop in attendance. The group decided to move for the second time.
For almost 20 years the Jaycees' haunted house was located in an old home just north of Main Street, where the new City Hall sits today.
The city tore down the house when it built the new City Hall six years ago, and the Jaycees moved the haunted house to the trailers, where they also have their offices.
So when members started looking for a new place to build a haunted house, this time they struck a deal with the folks at Clearwater Farm.
The Clearwater Farm Foundation agreed to let the Jaycees use one of the buildings on its property, and a portion of the proceeds will go to Clearwater Farm Foundation, which is trying to raise money to buy the property. The rest of the proceeds will go to the local Jaycees chapter and other charitable organizations.
"It's nice since it works out for both groups," St. Jacque said.
Visitors will have to decide what is scariest: a house, a trailer or a barn.
As for the Jaycees, they hope this year's haunted house will do the job of sufficiently scaring everyone.
St. Jacque said about five of the Jaycees have been in control of haunted house design. "The rest of us pick up hammers."
All stories copyright 2006 Onalaska Life and other attributed sources.