Tonight was amazing. We had nearly two hundred attendees, including many kids and adults with accessibility needs. We had kids that were so excited they were shaking, including kids in wheelchairs who had never been to a Haunt before. There were so many smiles from kids and parents afterward.
Our high-school actors who were struggling so hard during the Actor Orientations, mortified just to try and make a goofy sound in front of other people, soon were working even when they were supposed to be off-shift, because they were having so much fun scaring people and they didn’t want to stop.
This was the first year for Frolic’s Haunt. We were starting from scratch and there was so much to do, and with our amazing team, we made it happen.
My two Head Ghouls, Christina and Kat, put in untold hours at their own homes on this project as well as at my home. Our core group of volunteers, people like Clara and Liz and Phil, helped to make props and sets week after week. Our high school volunteers became scare actors and Ghouls. I went on CBC Radio and CP24, as well as an article in Metro, to promote us despite my terror of doing so. And together we all pulled off this amazing thing.
I can’t thank all of my volunteers enough. Everyone who came to a propmaking meeting, everyone who helped set up, everyone who was here tonight, folks who will be coming tomorrow to help tear down. They all played a role in this incredible thing we did tonight and I couldn’t have done it without them.
I wish I could post the photo of the forty volunteers who made tonight happen (and that doesn’t even include our volunteers that helped on other days), but there are a lot of our high-school volunteers in it and I don’t have permission from their parents. It’s a truly amazing photo that I’ll cherish.
And finally: thank you to everyone who attended tonight, who brought your children or your clients. Without your attendance, we’d have just been bored staff in empty rooms. I hope you and they had as amazing a time as we did, and I hope you join us again for Frolic’s Haunt 2018.