Get Spooked For A Good Cause

Sep 29, 2018 | 1:37 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Chris Bennett, his wife and a few friends have put in countless hours and money towards their one of a kind Haunted Maze.

They hosted the first of it’s kind back in 2016 in their backyard expecting a couple hundred people to show up. They were taken by surprise when over 2 thousand attended the two-night event. Now located in the 4-H barn at the CN Centre Fair Grounds, they’re hoping for 8-10 thousand attendees this year. 

“The middle age, teenagers, it’s like okay your too old to trick or treat you’re too young to drink. You can’t do anything except cause problems and throw pumpkins in the middle of the street. So we decided let’s do this because we are all passionate about Halloween it’s my favourite holiday its a couple of their favourite holidays and scaring people is a lot of fun,” Chris Bennett, the head organizer explains. 

Trying to keep the event at a low cost they use wooden pallets for the maze walls and have friends come out to help them build it. Jackie Bennett, another organizer of the event says the maze itself takes two days to set up and the decorating will take nearly two and a half weeks. 

“It’s time-consuming is the hard part, not really the mentally or physically but it’s just a lot of time and considering we have a little one at home makes it extra time-consuming. It’s wicked rewarding when people go through and they see the maze and they’re just like ‘oh my gosh this is amazing’ it’s just like it makes it totally worth it. Sometimes you’re like I don’t know if I can do this anymore and you take a 10-minute break and come back and you’re like okay, think of the end and it will be all worth it.” 

The Bennett’s built 80 percent of the props and spend nearly 8 thousand dollars setting up the whole event. After running it the first year they were shocked by the amount they raised so they decided to start donating the money to a good cause. Entry to the maze is by donation of either food that will be sent to St Vincent De Paul or cash that will be donated this year to the Prince George Search And Rescue. 

The Haunted Maze will be open to the public during the last two weekends of October. Child-friendly nights will be held on the 21st and 28th and the 19, 20, 26, 27 are recommended to those who can handle a bigger scare.