Haunted Garden scaring up safe, family fun

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - LETHBRIDGE HERALD on October 23, 2021.

The Interfaith Food Bank is partnering with the BGC Lethbridge Youth Centre, to create a fun outdoor Halloween activity for the whole family.
The Boys and Girls Club which has been rebranded to BGC Lethbridge, will be working with high school actors to put on a haunted garden. It is basically a haunted house outside taking place at the Interfaith Learning Garden at the foodbank at 1103 3 Avenue North on Oct. 29.
“We have been looking to do some Halloween activities for quite some time and have been putting feelers out, and it was BGC Lethbridge that reached out to us,” said Danielle McIntyre, Executive Director of Interfaith Food Bank.
McIntyre believes this is something exciting that they can grow over time, to see how things progress and how well the community responds to it.
“We are going to have a barbecue and some games for people while they are waiting to go through the haunted garden,” said McIntyre.
McIntyre said they followed up with the health inspector as soon as the restrictions changed most recently, as they were worried they wouldn’t be allowed to have the event when the outdoor gatherings restrictions went from allowing 200 people down to 20 people.
“But those restrictions apply specifically to private events, so the health inspector said yes as long as we are following all the regular outdoor protocols, we are good to go,” added McIntyre.
The BGC Lethbridge Youth Centre is doing all the theatrics. They will be arranging the decorations and actors and are still looking for more youth actors. Those interested in volunteering as actors can sign up at https://bgclethbridge.com/haunted-garden.html
The youth leadership group from The BGC Lethbridge Youth Centre has been making decorations for the last month or so for the event.
“They have been doing a lot of paper mâché, we have giant spiders, we have been making body bags, blood bags, we have been trying to figure out how to make an insane asylum kind of cells,” said Arnaud Sparks, Education Manager at BGC Lethbridge Youth Centre.
The event will take place from 6:30 p.m. until 9 p.m. with a suggested $5 donation, and they will be distributing one witch hat per donation.
People can go into the main parking lot to enter the garden from the rear, and then come out at the front basically looping around the building to be able to keep a circular flow.
“Once you paid the entry fee, you enter to the waiting area where there will be games, a barbecue and photo opportunities. And once your name is called to enter the haunted house, you can take the tour through it and if you need to, you can go back to the waiting area to hang out some more or you can head out from there,” explained Sparks.
McIntyre is hoping that people will see the event as a safe option for families this Halloween, where they can do something outside and still maintain COVID safety.
She added that they have a lot of Halloween stock at The Second Door Thrift Store like decorations and costumes, so they will be opening store that night for anybody that needs to do a last-minute Halloween purchase.

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