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If You Dare, Take Horror For A Spin

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By DAVID SOMMER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 19, 2007

HUDSON - Something macabre is brewing at The Angelus this weekend and next.

The normally heart-warming group home for disabled children and adults is morphing into a sinister and blood-chilling destination for thrill-seeking ghouls and goblins.

Volunteers are assembling what is billed as the 'first-ever' wheelchair-accessible haunted house. With no stairs and plenty of room to maneuver, this dungeon is designed to set even the hardest of hearts aquiver.

However, the plot also calls for customized entertainment of a tamer sort for those who would rather not emerge with a starchy hairdo.

'It's gonna get the kids to laugh. It's not all about scarin,'' said volunteer Don Surenkamp, who has been working for months setting up the Angelus' inaugural Halloween fundraiser.

For those who want just a few thrills, organizers will be handing out glow sticks, so actors stationed throughout the haunted house know to refrain from being their scariest, Surenkamp said.

If the haunted house is still too scary, there will be two emergency exits for the faint of heart.
Angelus resident Chris Fox pronounced the scary setup to be wheelchair-friendly after rolling through the large pavilion-turned-haunted-house this week.

Fox, 24, said he is looking forward to helping scare visitors to the haunted house, which opens Saturday and Sunday and then again next Friday through Halloween.

'I was thinking I could be like the undertaker of the graveyard,' Fox said.

'We'll get you a top hat and a shovel,' Surenkamp replied.

The graveyard is one of the extras that come with the haunted house tour. In keeping with this year's pirate theme, there is a ghoulishly populated ship of doom, a 'zombie forest' featuring furry-yet-dangerous woodland creatures, and a 'hell's kitchen' serving up something called 'Donner's meat.'

'It may be too much for some people, so there are ways to get out,' Surenkamp said.
Angelus program administrator Joe Neri said numerous sponsors have chipped in to create the haunted house. Ron's Halloween on U.S. 19 has donated many of the props, and local builder Terry Elrod provided the labor to build a wheelchair-friendly ramp that will come in handy year-round at the group home's outdoor pavilion, he said.

'It's a fundraiser, but it's really an awareness thing for us,' Neri said.

The more people who learn of The Angelus, the more potential donors there are for the nonprofit organization, he said.

'It's strange how it works,' Neri said, offering his own macabre take at Halloween time. 'Every once in awhile we get a package in the mail: Someone has passed away and a lawyer is contacting us to let us know we are included in the will.'

IF YOU GO

WHERE: 12413 Hudson Ave., approximately five miles east of U.S. 19

COST: $7 per person; wheelchair users get in free

WHEN: The haunted house will be open nights Saturday, Sunday and Oct. 26-31.

Hours are 6 p.m. to midnight Friday, Saturday and Halloween and 6 to 10 p.m. other nights.

Reporter David Sommer can be reached at (727) 815-1087 or dsommer@tampatrib.com.

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