For Rockland Kiwanians,
fundraising is a thrilling event

Close your eyes and picture Maine in the fall. Even if you’ve never been there, you can see the beauty of the changing leaves reflected in the windows of old barns where colorful lobster buoys hang. You can feel the cool, crisp autumn air against your face. You can practically smell the school bus diesel fumes mixed with the rawness of the ocean.

But think of Rockland, Maine, in the fall, and you might be too afraid to close your eyes for what you might imagine—demons, dragons, medieval knights, and an array of ghosts and goblins.

For the past several years, members of the Kiwanis Club of Rockland, Maine, have staged successful Halloween events that bring townspeople out of their homes—and cause some to jump out of their skins.

“We don’t do anything small,” says Joe Catalano, who each year takes charge of the club’s annual Halloween events. And how does the community react?

“They love it!” he says.

The club is currently looking to secure a location for its popular haunted house, which is sometimes easier said than done. Federal and state rules say a location for such an event—which can and does draw more than a thousand people—needs to be up to fire code, have no mold, etc. The list of requirements goes on and on.

“We have to get donated buildings because we don’t have money to spend, and that’s been a problem,” says club president Carol Kelley.

But Joe is confident the show will go on.

And, as he says, the club doesn’t like to do anything small. The club’s haunted houses in the past have been nothing less than works of art.

“When we get it up and running it will be a 13-room maze that will run for 13 nights,” Joe says. “We have 80 to 100 walls that bolt together. It takes two months of preparation to build the house.

“Two years ago, we had our biggest house. It was 6,000 square feet with an 80-foot vortex tunnel.”

Past haunted house projects have brought in US$15,000-20,000 profit. Money collected from the Halloween project goes directly back into the community through several scholarships the club provides annually to graduating high school students.

The houses—which staff more than 100 volunteers every night and include everyone from Kiwanians to Key Clubbers to Youthlink volunteers—have a theme each year. A few years ago, it was “Are you afraid of the dark?” which focused on scary movies. Visitors to this haunted abode found the club’s version of the possessed car “Christine.” The car, which was on a ramp and secured by several safety rails and belts, “came alive” when visitors passed by. With fog machines rolling, “her” lights turned on and she lurched forward to smash into a chain-link fence.

“I’m all about scaring the pants off of people,” says Joe. “If you can’t get someone to scream blood-curdling screams, it’s not worth doing.”