Haunted house at county fairgrounds raises funds for troops

by Kara Hildreth
Thisweek Newspapers

Fishing line was hung down to gently tickle the face and mimic cobwebs. Costumed characters with professional-looking scary makeup jumped out to surprise visitors in scare stations and even produced quite a few screams from adults at the sixth annual Support Our Troops Haunted House.

The event scared up more than 900 people who came to get frightened last Friday and Saturday nights at the 4-H building on the Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farmington.

Tripling attendance from last year event that was held at the Beyl family farm in Castle Rock, the haunted house was set with haunting attention to detail as a fun community event to raise funds for local military personnel. This was the first year the haunted house was held at the fairgrounds.

PHOTO: Organizer Germaine Beyl and Farmington Mayor Kevan Soderberg, who is dressed as a hillbilly, stood outside the Support the Troops Haunted House on Saturday night waiting to greet guests. Check out more photos at the end of this article. Photos by Kara Hildreth

Proceeds from the event will go toward sending out care packages, memorials and cards and letters to active-duty soldiers.

The event featured more than 80 volunteers who dressed in costumes and manned 21 scare stations.

Organizer Germaine Beyl said “We heard very, good comments about the props and scenes and how it was laid out. Some people really got scared and needed to be escorted out.”

“Some said it was hard to tell the actors from the dummies,” Beyl said.

A Wall of Heroes showed 50 photographs of local military service men and women. Visitors were welcome to write notes and postcards.

“We had a lot of people looking at the wall,” Beyl said.

Donations can still be made in person or by mail to Castle Rock Bank in Farmington, P.O. Box 9, Farmington, MN. Make checks out to Support Our Troops Haunted House.

A few volunteer firefighters helped out with security and inside the house.

“We hope to get more of the community involved next year,” Beyl said. “I think the fire department would like to have a scare station next year because they had a good time.”

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