The Little family presents Haunt in the Park

October 29, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Michelle Janzen

The heart races, palms get sweaty, and your body gets stiff – being frightened has become a fun way to spend time, especially during Hallowe’en.

It’s hard to guess how long the Little family has been hosting a haunted house in Shelburne, a good guess would be about 21 years.

Bob Little, the patriarch started pulling a few pranks on the trick or treaters years ago when his children were little. At that time, they lived at 116 First Ave W. and thus the yearly haunting begun.

Things picked up when Bob and Susan’s kids Stacey, Jeremy and Andrew were in their teens and began to help out. A family tradition was born. Every year new tricks were thought up. Animatronics both bought and home-made were added. Soon, family friends were helping out so you could never be sure what was alive and what wasn’t.

Getting the screams, the startled squeals and then the resulting laughter were addictive –so much so that when the family moved south of town, family friends offered them the use of their own home on Victoria Street to continue the tradition.

It became such a neighbourhood hit that when they sold their home, the new owners asked the Littles to stay on and continue with their yearly fright night. About five or six years ago, needing more space Andrew and his wife Sylvia moved back to Shelburne and resurrected the Haunted House in their backyard on Centre St.

There, it took on a life of its own, growing in scope and imagination until the opportunity came this year to expand once more and try their hand at the Fiddle Park.

Carola Little tells us, “Setting up in Fiddle Park in 2015 really allowed us to stretch our legs and expand our goals.”

“Every year it takes countless man hours sourcing out props, building and expanding exhibits, running electrical and mechanical lines and then actually making everything work the night of. We also always appreciated any pumpkin carvers out there that would love to lend their expertise to the ambiance throughout the fright-making event,” say Carola.

Halloween is certainly a favourite holiday for the Little family. A holiday where, whether you wear a designer costume or a simple sheet as a ghost, you are all fair game in the haunted house, and all who attend will get a treat at the end!

For those that are faint of heart, they have a “good fairy” that will take groups through. Her lighted staff will let all those beasties know that these people are not to be frightened. Once again they will be holding a “Mini-Boo” on Sunday, October 30, from 2 – 5 pm geared towards the little ghost and goblins who may not want to brave the evening events.

Perhaps you feel brave enough to attempt it at night where lack of lights, but plenty of sounds and screams abound, with events for the brave being held Saturday, October 29, from 6 pm until 10 pm and Monday, October 31, from 6 pm until 10 pm.

The Littles say they hope to beat last year’s attendance record of approximately 1,200 people and have expanded to 30 – 35 volunteers for each event.

“It really has captured so many people’s imagination and creativity – from costuming, to theatrical makeups, to prop building and animatronics…Halloween can really allow people to stretch their creative muscles and it’s all for a good cause,” Carola tells the Free Press.

As always, this is a free event.

The Littles don’t do this for profit and they don’t do it for a living. The fun and the memories, which they assure us they have hundreds of great stories of seasons past that get told and retold in the family, are their reward for all their hard work. However, as in past years they also welcome any donations of non-perishable food items for the local food bank.

Items will be collected at the event and dropped off afterwards. The Littles are hoping to top last year’s haul of 400 lbs of non-perishable food and $528 in cash that was donated.

The haunted house is being held at Fiddle Park, located behind No Frills and the Littles say they hope to scare….er….see you there.

For more information, you can find them on Facebook under: The Little Family presents Haunt in the Park.