Wawota Haunted Hotel returns for its 5th year, after a hiatus caused by COVID-19 restrictions. The theme this year is CarnEVIL.  

The fundraiser event began seven years ago in an effort to raise money for Movember. Lynette Porter, Kayla Porter, and Michelle Klein are the organizers. 

“I started it in my garage because we love haunted houses,” Lynette Porter said. “Then the one year we just wanted to expand and they were doing a Movember in the bar and we approached the bar owner, and I talked with Kayla and that's when we decided that we were going run Movember in the Haunted Hotel together upstairs in the bar here, and ever since then, it's just kind of taken off.   

The first year was a big success. 

“It was such a big event and there were so many community members participating in it in different ways, that we decided we wanted to keep it a more community-based fundraiser,” said Kayla Porter. “It has gone to the rink, the daycare, the green space in Kenosee got it a few years ago. We just choose each year whoever, you can apply for to get the money, and then we choose one or a couple of different groups for the money to go towards.” 

The Wawota skating, hockey, and curling rinks are benefitting from the funds raised on Friday, October 28th, and Saturday, October 29th. The daycare will get the proceeds from Sunday, October 30th.  

“On Friday and Saturday night, our local rink parents and communities from both the curling on the hockey side of things are going to come out and they're going to help us out by working downstairs and selling tickets and whatnot,” Michelle Klein said. “Then they will get the proceeds from those nights and then on Sunday we have the daycare coming in to help us with everything, and they supply actors, they run everything downstairs, they have events on their own and then all the proceeds from that day go to them.”  

Kayla said the Haunted Hotel is an interactive experience, which is something that makes it unique. 

“We pick a specific theme every year and that theme goes through the whole haunted house right from the beginning to the end. It tells a little bit of a story as you go through it, and what we feel makes our haunted hotel a lot different than others is that they don't just jump out and scare you and then it's done. We interact with them, we sometimes talk to them, and we find it really important to try and focus on all different scares.”   

The event begins on October 28th and 29th at 7:00 p.m., and runs on October 30th from 3:00 to 7:00 p.m. for kids. Tickets can be purchased at the door, or purchased in advance. Find out more HERE.