Justin Lata led his little sister, Julie, through the Jaycees’ haunted house Sunday in Schaumburg to show her the freaky sights in the comforting light of day. He didn’t want her to be too scared during her first trip to a haunted house.
After walking behind the protective shield of her brother to view the bloody snake-filled waters and the haunted campground, Julie Lata of Schaumburg, came out calm and wanting more.
“Can we do it again? Let’s do it again, please?” 7-year-old Julie asked her brother.
Justin, 17, promised to take her back at night to travel the haunted house in its full, scary glory before the haunted house closes for the season, and perhaps for good.
The Jaycees must move their haunted house to a new location at the end of this season because the Village of Schaumburg said it would not renew the lease. The haunted house has grown too popular for its own good. During the last 15 years the Jaycees have been holding its scare-fest in an old farm carriage house.
The Jaycees expect to guide about 10,000 thrill-seekers through the maze of scary rooms on 15 days during the month of October, said Tom Goodrich, co-chairman of the haunted house. Volunteers will also lead several hundred young children through as part of a “No Haunting Matinee” operated with the lights on.
“It’s a hard-core scary haunted house, that’s why we do it with the lights on,” Goodrich said. “Anything that will startle a kid is turned off.”
And there is a lot to turn off. The Jaycees run their haunted house through an automated computer system that triggers the tricks and frights with motion sensors and sets off buzzers, strobe lights and pneumatic air valves, said Terrence Bradley of Schaumburg, owner of Controlled Motion Inc., who donated 25 hours of his expertise to setting up the automated system.
With the system, volunteers can spend more of their time dressing up in costumes and scary masks, jumping out and yelling at haunted house visitors.
The Jaycees will be looking hard for a new location. The haunted house is its biggest fundraiser during the year, producing a $24,000 profit last year, said Jaycees President Susan Liss.
The money is used for charitable projects such as holiday baskets and Christmas gifts for needy children. It also aids other projects like D.A.R.E. and the children’s burn camp, Goodrich said.
The haunted house also serves as a good training ground in community service for teenage members of the Jaycees.
Rob Frazier, 16, of Schaumburg, said he volunteers his time to the community by working on the haunted house, while also getting the added bonus of scaring the pants off unsuspecting haunted house visitors.
He loves to operate a power saw without a blade, pretending to cut off visitors’ body parts, or to jump out at people from behind a glowing spider web.
“It’s a blast working here,” Frazier said. “It’s fun to get a person as old as your dad on his knees because he’s so scared.”
Frazier, and other volunteers started working on the haunted house in the spring. They tore down about a third of the inside of the carriage house, redesigned the attractions and rebuilt the inside with new thrills.
This year, the haunted house added the front part of a car fashioned after the Stephen King thriller “Christine.” It shimmies and shakes, with a bloody body on the hood and another one under the wheels.
“This isn’t spooky, this is cool,” said Tommy Shea, 7, as he went through the haunted house with his mother, Nicolette Shea, and brother Johnny, 10. Shea took her kids to the daytime haunted house for her sake as well as her sons’.
They crawled through the haunted sewer–Johnny’s favorite attraction–and stared at the snakes sharing space with bones in The Pit–Tommy’s favorite thrill.
“I think it would be very scary at night,” Shea said.
