The air is getting colder, the trees are dropping leaves and the spooky spirit is on the rise. Every fall, Halloween lovers seek out the best scares, whether it be a scary movie or a blood-curdling haunted house.
Niles Scream Park is in its 51st consecutive season of business. Opened in 1974 by the Niles Jaycees, Niles is the second oldest haunted house in the country. Niles is more than just a haunted house though. It is a positive force in the community, donating all of its profit to charities and creating a welcoming environment for employees and visitors alike.
Pete Karlowicz is the current owner of Niles Scream Park and has been involved with the park since 1980.
“When I graduated from law school, I wanted to become involved in a community,” Karlowicz said. “There was a group called the Jaycees, which is a community service organization, so I joined that organization, and the first project they worked on was the haunted house.”
Almost all of the work done at Niles is volunteer work. All of the actors and supervisors work for free, and their wages go to an organization of their choice.
“The volunteers themselves bring forth the organization they want their money to go to,” said Caitlin Harlow, a lead at Niles Scream Park. Leads supervise the other actors in the haunted house as well as acting themselves.
“Anyone that doesn’t have an organization they want to work towards,” Harlow continued, “their money goes towards the haunted house’s scholarship fund that gives out scholarships to the local high schools.”
Niles has over 200 volunteers working this seasonL lead Rachelle Dodge attributes this to the fun that working there provides.
“The best part for me is making a grown man cry,” said Dodge. “I’ve had linebacker type men in the fetal position before.”
All of these volunteers can be a lot to handle, however, which Karlowicz can speak to.
“When you have 225 people, it’s kind of a pro and a con,” said Karlowicz. “It’s a great thing to have because you’ve got a lot of volunteers and they’re enthusiastic, but at the same time you have to get them to mesh and do what you want them to do. Our volunteers are the backbone of the park, but it’s kind of a plus and a minus at times.”
Both Dodge and Harlow have family ties to Niles Scream Park. They grew up around the haunted house and started working there at a young age.
“We make ‘Children of the Corn’ jokes, like instead of the children of the corn we’re the children of the house,” said Harlow. “You have no hope of being normal when you’re raised in a haunted house, but it’s your normal.”
Dodge has been working at Niles since 2009 and became a lead in 2011. Although she was scared when she was younger, she eventually got used to the environment, especially when she started working there.
“When I was little, I used to come here with my family, and I was terrified,” said Dodge. “I used to do a walk-through with my dad every year, and as soon as I no longer needed an additional flashlight, I was allowed to start working here. Once your brain shuts off the fear then our parents were like ‘cool, you can work here now.’”
Clearly, Niles has a strong attraction with the public, as volunteers come back year after year, many of them becoming leads and managers. Despite what you might expect from people dressed as ghosts and monsters, everyone at Niles is extremely friendly and close.
“We are best friends, we spend every waking moment together, we wouldn’t know each other outside the program,” said Harlow. “Everyone that you meet in and out of character we all become a family.”
