HEBER SPRINGS — The Frightening Haunted House is calling for brave souls and fraidy-cats alike to come get scared to help the Heber Springs Humane Society.
The annual haunted house, set up this year at 1100 W. Main St., Suite B, will open at 7:30 p.m. “till all the victims are gone,” as the advertisements put it, on Friday and Saturday, and every Friday and Saturday in October. It also will be open Halloween, Oct. 31.
Admission is $10 for adults and $5 for kids 10 and younger.
Louis Short, a member of the board for the haunted house, said new this year is an escape room — Escape the Frightening. Tickets are $10 per person, 7:30-11:30 p.m., and reservations must be made at the-frightening.ticketleap.com. It will be held weekdays, as well as Fridays and Saturdays and on Halloween.
He said participants have 12 minutes to escape, rather than the hour that many escape rooms take.
“Actually, it’s 10 minutes, but we as a board hemmed and hawed around to give them 12 minutes,” he said.
The haunted-house organizers purchased the escape-room scenario. He said board members go each March to St. Louis, Missouri, to a haunted-attraction show.
“We’re a group of friends who get together and have been doing this for several years to raise money for nonprofits in the area,” Short said. “We try to improve it every year.”
Short, who is a member of the Heber Springs City Council, said his group of friends has participated at least 15 years.
Short said most of them volunteered when the haunted house was operated by first responders; then Short and his friends took it over. The board also includes Jared Christian, Travis Howard, Charles Duffey and Luke Kennedy.
“A few years ago, we decided, OK, the emergency departments get quite a bit of money from tax revenue; we were realizing there were some other nonprofits in Cleburne County and Heber Springs that were suffering, so we talked over among ourselves as a board and said, ‘We’ll start looking to help other folks,’” he said. “We do it because we love it and to raise money for a good cause.”
Last year, the haunted house raised $3,000 for a shelter for victims of domestic-abuse , “which was the most we’d ever done. We were thrilled, and so were they,” he said.
This year, the Heber Springs Humane Society will benefit from the effort.
“We’re real excited that they chose us, and we can definitely use the money,” said Wendy Hosman, manager.
She said funding for the humane society comes from donations, the Heber Springs Humane Society Thrift Store, payment from cities that use the shelter and fundraisers. The Paws at the Beach 5K Walk/Run and 1K Dog Run is scheduled for Oct. 7.
“We have quite a bit of things that need done; [the haunted-house proceeds] will go to good use,” Hosman said. “A new roof — that’s one. Our roof is falling in on the inside. We’ve been looking to adding a catio, where the cats can go outside. Those are just a couple of ideas; we’d like to put back money where we can transport dogs to Wisconsin.”
Hosman said grants have been used to help transport the dogs.
“We’re incredibly full right now. It’s been a very, very busy summer. We’ve been transporting a lot of dogs to Wisconsin, but that’s slowed down,” she said. “The rescue in Wisconsin started taking in more animals of its own, locally. It’s caused us to be overburdened.
“And, of course, if all else fails, we just might have to buy food.”
Short said no one on the board makes any money from the haunted house, but some of the proceeds each year go to buy supplies and pay for electricity.
The Frightening Haunted House is in a different location every year, Short said. “We would love to have a permanent location so we wouldn’t have to set up and take down every year,” he said. “We run completely off volunteers.”
One longtime volunteer is Wathetta Stude of Tumbling Shoals.
Stude said she and a friend, Cathy Hutto of Heber Springs, started volunteering at the haunted house about 10 years ago. The women are members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and the organization previously sponsored another haunted house.
“We had a blast,” Stude said.
Then they joined The Frightening Haunted House.
“I usually do costumes and help them put everything together, and I take the money,” Stude said. “I just enjoy it. The kids have a good time, and I volunteer with teenagers at my church all the time. You see how much fun the kids have when they volunteer and how much they have when they come in as customers.”
Stude said she didn’t like haunted houses until she started volunteering.
“We have a lot of fun, and we like to scare people, and we’re a good eclectic group,” she said.
More information is available on The Frightening Haunted House in Heber Springs Facebook page.
Senior Writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.