Chills for Charity : Nonprofits Cash In on Halloween Boom With Haunted Houses, Parties

Debbie Hillman stood at her kitchen sink mixing clear gelatin and red food coloring, a concoction to simulate blood in the butcher’s room of her backyard spooky maze.

Satisfied that the gooey substance was perfect in consistency and color, Hillman then went out to the maze to watch the head pop off a mechanical monster and to step on peanut shells to make sure they crunched like cockroaches.

Hillman wanted everything to be just right for her eighth annual Halloween Haunting, a 1,200-square-foot maze complete with eerie music, flashing lights and hair-raising special effects sponsored by the Santa Clarita Valley’s Newhall Optimist Club.

The spooky maze is not only an annual Halloween attraction for neighborhood kids on Calla Way in Canyon Country, but a major event that pays for the group’s community service projects.

“This is our largest fund-raiser,” Hillman said. “The maze is for the children, and all the funds we get go back into programs that help children.”

Club members use the proceeds to prepare holiday baskets for needy families and a holiday party for children of inmates at the Peter J. Pitchess Detention Center, Hillman said.

Savvy community groups, like the Optimist Club, have devised a way to cash in on Halloween, which is expected to generate more than $5 billion nationwide in sales this year.

Halloween theme parties, haunted houses and spooky mazes are perfect tie-ins for charities seeking to blend good times with good works, professional fund-raisers say. Although these events can be expensive to stage, experts say they remain a good way to raise money and awareness for causes.

“Retail businesses have realized that people are paying attention to Halloween, and nonprofits are right on their heels,” said Ann Kaplan, research director for the American Assn. of Fund-Raising Counsel in New York.

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According to the National Retail Federation in Washington, D.C., which tracks the amount of money spent on Halloween-related fare, Americans are likely to drop $2.5 billion on cards, decorations and pumpkins, $1.5 billion on costumes and $1.8 billion on candy this year.

“That’s a whole lot of M&Ms;,” quipped Pamela Rucker, a federation vice president for public relations.

Halloween has grown significantly in recent years, Rucker said, because of an increase in adult parties and more elaborate children’s parties. Beyond costumes and candy, fright-night purchases cover a wide array of items, from extension cords to dry ice to hard liquor.

In the San Fernando Valley, ghosts and goblins will be flying about at a haunted house at the Winnetka Recreation Center that is sponsored by the West San Fernando Valley Twilight Rotary Club. Proceeds from Castle Frightmare will be shared by the club and center, organizers said.

In past years, Rotarians have raised $20,000 from Halloween events to benefit the Muscular Dystrophy Assn., the Pediatric AIDS Foundation and other charities. This year, club members plan to give $2,000 to Rotary International to benefit an organization that teaches impoverished Nicaraguans to plant, cultivate and harvest crops.

“When you are dealing with an organization like Rotary International, which provides matching funds, a small contribution can be multiplied six or eight times,” said Judi Vogel, Twilight Rotary Club’s treasurer. “I am amazed by the power of it all.”

Like Twilight Rotary Club, the Crescenta Valley station of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will stage a fund-raising All Hallows’ Eve event.

Sheriff’s deputies and community volunteers will transform the station’s jail cells into chambers of horror in which visitors will come face-to-face with the Grim Reaper in a fog-shrouded graveyard, Deputy Roger Wallace said. Some 4,000 thrill seekers are expected to wind through the house of horrors, which is geared toward adult visitors.

The deputies hope to clear about $5,000 after expenses from the event, now in its sixth year, he said. The money will be divided between the station’s Reserve Company and the Sheriff’s Explorer Scouts.

“This is the biggest fund-raiser for these two groups,” Wallace said. “The [reserve] deputies only get paid $1 a year--before taxes.”

Nonprofit organizations unable to bear the cost of staging Halloween events may still benefit through fund-raising programs set up by commercial haunted houses.

Frightfare and the 4 Dimensions of Fear Haunted House in Canoga Park hires community group members to work as supplemental actors, security guards and support staff, said Robert McBroom, president of Asylum Productions, the show’s producer. Workers are compensated based on the number of participants and the hours they work.

“This year we have a labor budget of $24,000 that is accessible to nonprofit organizations,” said McBroom, who operates the attraction on the Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne Division campus at De Soto Avenue and Nordhoff Street.

Similarly, the operators of Spooky House in Woodland Hills say they plan to donate 15% of their earnings to the American Cancer Society. They have also given fliers to members of the Taft High School marching band and Cleveland High School football team to distribute. For each flier returned, patrons will get a $1 admission discount and the groups will pocket $1, said Bob Koritzke, who owns and operates the two-story haunted mansion set up in a mall parking lot at Topanga Canyon and Victory boulevards.

Back in Canyon Country, Hillman said she and her husband, Richard, would still put in the hours of effort to pull off a successful spooky maze even if they didn’t make a dime.

“We love Halloween,” she said. “We just want the children to have a safe alternative to being out on the streets.”

Happy Haunts in the Valley

* Hillman’s eighth annual Halloween Haunting, 19215 Calla Way, Canyon Country, will be open Friday and Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 7 to 10:30 p.m. Donations requested. Benefits the Santa Clarita Valley Newhall Optimist Club. For information, call (661) 252-2879.

* Castle Frightmare, Winnetka Recreation Center, 8401 Winnetka Ave., will be open Thursday and Sunday from 6 to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to midnight. Admission is $4. Benefits West San Fernando Valley Twilight Rotary Club and Winnetka Recreation Center. For information, call (818) 998-3833.

* Haunted Jail, 4554 Briggs Ave., La Crescenta, will be open Friday and Saturday from 6 to 11 p.m. (Not recommended for children.) Admission is $4. Special children’s program Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $2. Benefits Crescenta Valley Sheriff’s Station Reserve Company and Explorers programs. For information, call (818) 248-3464.