A Ride to Remember

Honestly, that's what I am hoping to get out of Halloween this year.

Hello! I am here to talk more about the Halloween ride I want to do this year. A couple of talking points:

1. What we have settled on so far

2. Questions I have still

3. Looking for -- and here's that word -- volunteers!

4. What I need from volunteers. Or what we will need

So let's go!

Stuff that's Settled

I have determined a path, after a few conversations with varying people.

(Map courtesy of Google, of course.)

The way I see it, the orange path is the haunted "house" with actors and scary spots along the way. The parking lots and road for parking, up to but not including the cul-de-sac that is at the Woodcock St corner there.

Go in at the top, after a pause for donation collection and a safety check (helmets will be mandatory, for everyone. Safety first.) Then you ride alongside the pond and around the bend. Along the way, there should be surprises - zombie cyclists shuffling along, maybe one moving super slowly on a bike, a witch, ghosts, someone to chase them a bit. Harmless scaring and fun.

So what makes successful haunted houses successful? Which of those things can we take and translate to the outdoors?

We will do this for one night (this year), on Saturday, October 26th. That way, we have more time for full-time working volunteers to help out during the day.

There will be little treat bags at the end. And I shall endeavour to ensure that there are peanut- and gluten- free treats.

I got in touch with the City and so far, neither Parks & Forestry nor Road Ops has an issue with us doing this. Road Ops thinks we need approval from the special events team. Possibly permits. I should find out today or tomorrow. Once that's clear, we're good to go!**

Also, FM96 will be advertising this for us and we may get Gunner to come out!

Questions I still have

Still waiting on the City's Special Events department to find out about permits.

• Can we get the HP BIA to help advertise?

• Do we want any other radio station to talk about the event or just FM96? Maybe 92.7 Pure Country?

• Should we be asking shops - Walmart, Superstore, etc - to donate treats?

• Will Lowe's - whoops, Rona+ - or Home Hardware or something rent big Halloween displays like this one?

What will that cost?

• How are we going to handle it if like 700 people show up?? (This one terrifies me!) Equally terrifying: what if only like 12 people show up?

• Figure out the timing/spacing for allowing people to go after the one in front has gone.

• Figure out what roles and decor. Does anything need built? What do we need to buy/see if we can get donated?

• Will MS Canada be on board with also advertising for us?

• Will MS Canada be on board with this style of fundraiser?

(and, way deep in my brain, can I pull this off?)

What is still needed

Volunteers. And a committee. We need to figure out who can do what, who is willing to do what, what the whats are, etc.. So far, I have two couples (or maybe one-and-a-half, depends if my son-in-law-ish can take the day off), me, Mike, one customer.

At a minimum, we need two people at the entrance; at least one at the exit, possibly two; at least six stations, 3 on each arm; 3 actors. Plus a few to help set up (with enough volunteers, we can have staging people while the actors are getting ready).

I'm just throwing numbers around here but I think that's the minimum to make it successful.

Mike, as you can see, is raring to go.

I had to snicker when I did this to him. The snicker turned to uproarious laughter as the guys got to seeing it and responding.

I did this using a photo and a website called Make Me a Zombie.

So!

Volunteers? (And thank you to the people who have volunteered so far.)

This is going to be so much fun. I LOVE Halloween and when I get to share that with others, I'm at my happiest.

Come and have some fun. You can find the sign-up sheet here.

On a side note, this October has a Friday the 13th (the one that counts), solar eclipse, with a bonus full blood moon lunar eclipse on the Halloween weekend. Going to be a wild month.

I am so looking forward to this! I hope some of you are on board. Please use the sign up sheet, so I can keep track.

Have a great day!

** I heard from London Stormwater Engineering and they're good with it, too.