For 24 years, the Olivenhain Haunted Hotel has been Scout Troop 2000’s primary annual fundraiser, ever-evolving as technology and tastes have changed.
Nobody waits in a 45-minute line to see the slight fright-inducing, decorated rooms at the old, former hotel on the Olivenhain Meeting Hall property any more. Now, there’s a “virtual line” where prospective guests receive a cellphone text message alerting them when it’s their turn to take a tour.
That’s something that one of the teen Scout thought up several years ago, and it’s “made it a lot better event,” said Michael Tryon, Troop 2000 committee chair, adding it’s the Scouts that make most of the decisions about how to run the operation, not their parents.
That can have its challenges. The teens definitely prefer more blood and guts to their scares, but they are toning things down significantly this year to better meet the needs of their guests, who primarily are elementary school-aged children keen for a “low scare” or “no scare” tour.
“For many years, we had a guy with a chainsaw (pretend) cutting off a leg on a table,” but parents now are asking for less blood and gore, Tryon said.
Instead of chainsaw man, this year’s focus is on cackling witches making potions; mad scientists experimenting with electricity; and undead zombies partying at a banquet table. The tour begins with a dimly lit room where a small child huddles in a bed hoping that the huge spider legs poking out from around the edge of the closet door aren’t real.
“The premise is there’s a kid that’s sleeping in a room and having a nightmare,” 15-year-old Anna Broehmer, a sophomore at San Dieguito High School Academy, said as she gave a tour Saturday. “Last year, we had the kid dragged off the bed, but that was too violent for some (guests).”
Each young guest views the scary scenes with a Scout tour guide at their side. The guide asks the guests at the start how much of a “scare” they want, then tailors the tour to that request, and continues to check in with the youngsters throughout the tour.
“I’m going to be one of the guides, so I get to make up a story for each room,” 12-year-old Ellie Rock, a seventh-grader at St. Patrick Catholic School, said Saturday as she described her job duties.
Tour guides also help move guests from one window viewing area to the next, Broehmer said, adding that’s needed because when people get scared “they kind of stop.”
When 12-year-old Scout member Jocelyn Burkland’s dad worked on the very first Scout Troop 2000’s Haunted Hotel event two dozen years ago, he had to remove actual bats infesting the building, tear out rotting floorboards and make repairs before he and his fellow Scouts could start decorating, his daughter said.
These days, the former hotel is a beautifully renovated building. The Scouts have to put cardboard down to protect the refurbished flooring before they start decorating. They still create scary scenes in the old hotel rooms, but visitors view them by looking in the windows, rather than walking through the rooms. Thousands of visitors a year take the the Scouts’ Haunted Hotel tours and that many feet would cause too much wear and tear on the flooring, Tryon said.
There is, of course, one other major change — Troop 2000 was originally a boys-only group, but these days both girls and boys can . And, they all avidly participate in creating the decorations, putting on costumes to act out parts in the rooms, or playing tour guide on the October weekends when the Haunted Hotel is open for business, said
This year’s tour dates are Oct. 12 & 13, 19 & 20 and 26 & 27. Hours are 6 to 9 p.m., and tickets cost $8. In addition to the tours, there’s food and outdoor games offered on the meeting hall grounds during the events.
About 30 to 40 Scout spend multiple weekends making the hotel look “haunted” before the tour season begins. They share part of the money they raise from the ticket sales with the Olivenhain Town Council. The rest helps pay for the Scouts’ monthly camping and backpacking trips, as well as merit badge activities, including lifesaving education programs, Tryon said.
