Revitalize Dublin and Harris Ranch unveiled “Doublin’ Your Nightmares” - a unique haunted house fundraiser, on Saturday, Oct. 10 and open from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. (or later) Oct. 17, 24, 30 and 31.
Admission is $15 per person, and concessions will be available for purchase throughout the evening. Revitalize Dublin invites everyone to come hungry, bring their friends and plan to make a night of it. Oct. 17 is Tarleton Night where Tarleton students can enter for half price.
Revitalize Dublin is a local nonprofit organization dedicated to beautifying and improving the Dublin community. One of the organization’s primary programs provides grants to local homeowners to help with exterior repairs and improvements. The success means the needs for more funds and Carmen Andersen and Lori Beggs, president and vice president of RD, said the haunted house presented a fun way to raise money and increase the amount of residents they can help.
“Everything we raise through this event ultimately comes back to Dublin,” said Andersen. “Our organization exists to make a visible difference in our community, and the tremendous response to our homeowner grant program shows us there is a real need. The more support we receive, the more we can give back.”
“We wanted to think outside the box and create a fundraiser people would actually be excited to attend,” Beggs said. “Yes, we want to scare you — and we plan to do a pretty good job of it — but every scream and every ticket sold helps us continue doing good things for Dublin.”
RD has been assisted by a dedicated crew of planners, builders and volunteers who spent two weeks designing and realizing a maze within the barn Harris Ranch offered for the fundraiser.
Planner Dalton Harris credits a good working relationship with Heather Anderson (who he dubbed the “master of creepy”) and his brother Danny.
Dalton said Danny was a great resource for working on a budget as he had helped put together 9-10 haunted houses for 4H food drives in Wyoming.
Danny agreed to help and they began gathering a ton of screws, pallets and black plastic to build corridors.
Anderson and crew are making sure to plant surprises behind every turn of those corridors that tap into many of the most common phobias.
The crew all weighed in on the content with Dalton saying the balance have been listening to everyone’s ideas and distilling to the best without hurting anyone’s feelings. “Seeing everybody’s abilities and creative process has been really cool,” said Heather.
The crew hope to get guests screaming for a good cause and said the suggested age for “Doublin’ Your Nightmares” is 10-12 and up.
Ensuring those screams are a dedicated group of volunteers including many DHS students earning community service hours in a fun way.
“Our volunteers are the heart of this event,” Beggs said. “They have shown up, jumped into character and embraced some pretty crazy ideas to help us create something special. We simply could not do this without them. If you scream when you come through, chances are you have one of our incredible volunteers to thank for it!”
RD also thanked Harris Ranch, also hosting the return of the Harris Pumpkin Patch on the weekends this October, for being a great partner and providing the space.
Andersen added, “This entire event is a wonderful example of what can happen when a community comes together. From Harris Ranch providing the location to our volunteers giving their time, so many people have stepped up to help us turn an idea into a fundraiser that will allow us to continue investing right back into Dublin.”
Harris Pumpkin Patch is a separate admission fee from the haunted house, and an additional $10 will allow you access to the patch and live music at the pumpkinspirited event.