Haunted Town’s fundraising efforts anything but scary for SW Sask. recipients
The scares were big at a haunted town experience south of Swift Current, but the smiles were even bigger when the funds raised were recently presented to non-profit organizations.
The cheque presentations for funds from the 2023 Haunted Town of Lil-surmer took place during a pizza party for haunted town volunteers, Nov. 25.
This year’s event raised a record-breaking $24,410 and 12 different non-profit organizations received funding.
Andy Keys from the Haunted Town organizing committee said this year’s amount was about $10,000 more than the funds raised in 2022 and it was also higher than their own goal of $20,000 for 2023.
“It gives us a warm fuzzy feeling to be able to give out money,” he mentioned. “We way exceeded any expectation that we thought we were going to make this year.”
This was the seventh year the event took place and the total raised, including this year’s amount, is close to $90,000.
The Haunted Town of Lil-sur-mer is located south of Swift Current at Springfeld. It is used as a paintball field at other times during the year, but it is transformed into a fun and scary experience as a combined walking/ride tour over three weekends in the run-up to Halloween.
He gave special recognition to all the scarers who volunteered their time during six days to make the event a success.
“Without you guys it wouldn’t be possible to put this on at all,” he said. “We’ve gone from having maybe six in the first year where we made a couple of thousand dollars and we thought that was fantastic. This year we’ve had about 60 people out there. So absolutely fantastic.”
The funding allocations will assist a variety of non-profit organizations with their program activities and project goals.
The Penner-petterson Cat Colony, which cares for community cats through a trap-neuter-return program in the town of Morse, received $1,000.
The River Hills First Responders also received $1,000. It is a volunteer group based out of Stewart Valley with one emergency response vehicle. Coordinator Jeremy Pettigrew said their coverage area has been everywhere from Beaver Flats to Cabri and south towards Swift Current.
“We’re volunteers with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, but our funding is all privately raised,” he noted. “So we have to come up with our own ways of raising funds.”
The donation from Haunted Town will therefore be very helpful to either update or maintain some of their equipment, for example the batteries in their automated external defibrillator.
“Now we’ve got some money to replace those,” he said. “The funds will help for insurance on the vehicle, fuel in the vehicle, any maintenance that we have to do to it.”
The Center in Swift Current, which provides youth programming and support services, received an amount of $1,380. The Ponteix School breakfast program received $1,500.
The Swift Current Group 2 Scouts received a cheque of $2,000. A group of around 20 scouts volunteered on two nights at Haunted Town, where they formed a zombie hoard.
Haunted Town donated $2,000 to the Swift Current Community Fridge Initiative, which will be used to purchase food for the community fridge location in the city’s downtown.
The Lii Bufloo Métis Local #35 for Swift Current and area Métis residents received a donation of $2,000 from Haunted Town. Barb Parchman, a member of the Métis Local #35 executive, said they will use this funding to support their activities at the organization’s office space in Swift Current.
“We have main programming space, we have an office space and we also have children’s space,” she explained. “The money that we received will go to help furnish our children’s space so that when we have programming, we can have a spot for kids to be there or we can actually offer programming in that space as well.”
Haunted Town made a total donation of $3,230 to the three cadet groups in Swift Current. The Navy League, sea and air cadets sold raffle tickets, which determined the amount that each corps received. The top selling unit also received an extra $500.
Silver Wings Access Van Inc (SWAVI) was presented with a cheque of $5,000. It has been raising funds for a wheelchair accessible vehicle for long-term care residents at The Meadows. This goal has been reached and the van will arrive early next year, but the group continues to raise funds for its future upkeep and maintenance.
“There’ll be winter tires, oil changes, general maintenance, insurance and the plates,” SWAVI Co-chair Tracey Schlamp said. “We want to make sure that we’ve got a little bit in the bank to make sure that if something does happen that we can replace anything.”
She expressed appreciation for this donation and noted that several SWAVI volunteers were helping out at this year’s Haunted Town.
“One was a dead secretary and the other one was a scary ghoul,” she said. “We were very proud to be a part of that and very grateful for this gift.”
The Ashley Park playground project in Swift Current received a donation of $5,000 as well as $600 from the sale of raffle tickets. It is an initiative by homeowners in the Ashley Park neighbourhood and their goal is to raise at least $100,000 for a playground and basketball half-court.
The Hattum family, who volunteered at this year’s Haunted Town, received the cheque on behalf of the homeowners group. Son Eric was also a volunteer at last year’s Haunted Town and he was joined this year by his parents, Lisa and Travis.
“We had so much fun,” Lisa said. “It’s a lot of work for six days. You’re tired, but it’s a lot of fun.”
According to Keys the success of this year’s Haunted Town was a combination of its popularity and good weather.
“I’m seeing people coming from long distances for it,” he said. “They’re coming into Swift Current and they’re making a day or an evening of the whole thing. They’re staying in a hotel, they’re going to restaurants, they’re eating and then they’re coming out and they’re spending an hour to two hours coming through Haunted Town. So it’s a good experience.”
He is a tour guide during the six days of the event and he asked people where they were from. There was a group from Earl Grey, which is north of Regina, others came from the Saskatoon and Regina areas, many were from Medicine
Hat and a couple came from south of Mankota.
There was a wedding proposal at this year’s Haunted Town with the assistance of the clowns and a young couple came for a third year to celebrate their wedding anniversary. The event is also a trip for birthday parties.
There are many return visits to the Haunted Town, because the themed attractions change every year and it is never the same. There has been a clown hall each year, but it is always a scary surprise.
“They might be above you one year, they might be below you or they’ll get in your face,” he said. “That is always a highlight. It is always one of the scariest things. It’s disorientating, it’s loud, you can’t see in some of the places. So it’s got a little bit of everything.”
There were eight attractions this year, which were two more than at last year’s Haunted Town. Each year the scenarios include jump scares as well as other intrusions on your senses. Keys never expected that Haunted Town will become
so popular, but they are happy to continue scaring people to raise funds for good causes.
“A friend of mine came to me and said anybody can do a haunted house, but do you think we could do a haunted town,” he recalled. “I don’t think any of us ever thought it would be this.”
Their intention is to use funds raised each year to support different not-forprofits, volunteer services, community groups or programs in southwest Saskatchewan. Requests for donations can be submitted online through their website at: www.hauntedtownoflilsurmer.ca