2014 Carnevil Fundraiser

This year's Carnevil Fundraiser, held on October 30, 2014 in Smithville, Missouri was a huge success. We were able to raise a tidy sum to benefit Ronald McDonald House. We had a number of talented volunteers this year. We had several adults, including the lovely ladies stationed at the donation table, several adult scare-actors, a number of teenage and middle school clown's in hiding, a group of three young men who very successfully haunted one of our bridges, and younger volunteers who helped patrons find their way into the forest. There were several exhibits that were commented upon favorably. The large carnival tent was a big hit. It was fog filled and strobe lit, and included the unfortunate "Sparky the Clown", who received a peculiar version of Carnival shock therapy, as well as a clown who had apparently escaped from the set of the "Texas Clownsaw Massacre".  The train bridge was also popular, in particular when it was rather spontaneously populated by a very tall and frightening Grim Reaper. "The Beast in the Box" made a frightening appearance; for some reason we just can't seem to keep the lid of the box chained.

We made a number of technological strides this year. We made liberal use of Pico-Boo devices from our friends at Fright Ideas (www.frightideas.com) who are located in Barrie, Ontario, Canada and with whom we hope to work again next year (hopefully at a somewhat reduced rate given our charitable but terrible intentions.)  These allowed use of infrared detectors to trigger scares, and allowed programming of rather complex animatronic scenes such as "Sparky" and "The Beast".  We also used more intense LED strobe lighting and better foggers, with the latter being Chauvet 1000 watt hurricane fog machines (these worked very well, perhaps even too well in some spots where we had to reduce output in order to have the scenes visible.)  We will also try to hit up Chauvet for a bit of charitable support next year.

By far the hit of the event was the terrible monkey with the cymbals. As the story goes, he apparently escaped after growing exceedingly large and casting off his role as an organ grinder's monkey. He was apparently taking refuge in our haunt, and subsequently disappeared to parts unknown.  I would not be surprised if he does not make an appearance next year.