Nice Jim! We can just do a human operated "last ride" and throw dirt on the lid to freak them out while they're in there! Thanks for the singular maze idea.
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I'm coming in late on this, but another wall material option for lightweight walls could be 4' x8' Masonite panels over 2 x 2s. The Masonite is made with fire retardant already added and usually runs between $5.50 and $6.00 a sheet in most areas. Of course it will not give you the strength factor of a 1/2" plywood wall, but will hold up infinitely better than plastic sheeting. It takes paint well with one coat usually and can also be wall papered as well. The biggest drawback I know of is that it can and will warp under adverse weather conditions, so if you go this route, don't scrimp on the screws when attaching to your framework. Another tip on 2 x 2s is to rip your own out of 2 x 4s rather than buying them precut. If you have access to a table saw rip them to exactly 1-1/2" by 1-1/2". This will give you a drop piece slat the size of lattice material that although you may not think would be useful, can be used in dozens of applications. But most importantly it makes your framing material much more universal and easier to work with when building the walls. And, when purchasing 2 x 4s from your lumber yard, make sure to pick them out yourself rather than letting the stockman choose them for you. Check each one to make certain they are straight and not warped. This will make ripping them much easier, and never store the raw material upright leaning against a wall. Kiln dried lumber is never really dry completely and they will almost always warp over the course of a day or two.
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Round here there is an entire underbelly of community events and charities. The events can only be judged by the number of porta potties at the event or how much money was raised is a small amount of time.
Your whole event raised more than $27,000 last year. The highest college type event raised $51,000. What this tells me is how to have an increase in your event every year by wether or not to invest in real wall panels. Yes, you should. Anything over $25,000 is a good event.
So there are some tricks to procuring wood for panels. They might even be doors from various junk shops or the entire habitat for humanity restore pallet of donated paneling that isn't really up to home building quality but, they had such stuff donated. Same for paint. You can hit paint stores and actually offer them a value for their mis mixed paint for a tax write off. Not only is there owes and Home Depot but all sorts of old skool paint shops that previouly had no way to get rid of this stuff.
A bold move would be to have the event also include habitat for humanity in the area as well as a food bank of some kind that generally has a big ass network of advertising and bilboards.
All thought this is much more big picture than is there something cheaper than black plastic, this event is going to have something every year and how hard it is to do should be made far more easy. The better quality makes it far more safe and a real investment simply increases how popular it would be to participate in it.
The real payoffs are generally meeting people in the community that you otherwise would never have the inclination or excuse to meet. The cross overs for your event and when ever there is some fund drive for other charities simply makes the whole town more sufficient and not at a burden in hard times.
This makes who ever came up with this idea a god of philanthropy. All the events thrive and moreso than if they were just left stangnant as they are and seperate. Then instead of ever seeing a cut in funding, the questions will be what if we put a couple thousand into this thing. You are also entertaining people that are family and friends of relay participants and the more things there are to do the better. The more quality your stuff looks the more can be raised per haunted house victim. We are talking thesus level research project here. Honorary doctorate. Free lemonade!
What would happen if you got serious about this? Well, you would have developed the one to one relationship wether it happened the way you wanted it to or not and done all the fact finding missions that will pay off big time for any future resource scrounging. Only you actually did it once, didn't just dream it or theorize it could happen. It doesn't matter if you are the events big cahoona or not. Certainly you scout out these ideas and get them to the proper channels but, some of this may simply be oh sure we have 50 gallons of paint over here we don't know what to do with.
Some joker donated this whole stack of wood that is kind of moldy and scared up by a fork truck or wild pigs or something and we sure could use the space. Wala, easier stuff to build and something worth storing. Reused over and over instead of lining the landfill every year. Make your charity event more efficient as far as banking resources from year to year.
One of my pet peeves is how charities actually screw over so many resources that actually cost money and this should make a certain amount back but, they don't because who cares it is all free and everyone volunteered and garbage is garbage. In reality the electric bill went up with this thing happening, the money sort of went out the door and if it doesn't make some serious amount of money or get some serious amount of recognition then it is only a cost that can be avoided.
Hand the big cahhoona back his $750, thanks pal. I got this. Is this supposed to be 3500 square feet of washer and dryer boxes with little sesame street windows cut in them?
Just to put things in perspective, there are charities that pay 20% of their take gladly to have an attraction brought in and run. A real investment is how you work toward that. It is recouping your expense for storage and adding more structure every year rather than the money that is supposed to build something from nothin every year.
This is the way it be's when you are too poor to be a philanthropist.sigpic
Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.
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To be a star, you also have a fund raising event that is only haunted house in October and this is where the funds come from to make things great or pump up the event's yearly income if you are into that. Or the October event helps another charity. Same people having fun other times of the year with the same free resources.
You can independently ask for donations FOR the haunted house or the expense it incurres as it benefits all sorts of things and anyone that is a sponsor gets mentioned in the paper yearly as a keen community participant. In effect free advertising that would otherwise cost 10 times more than they have donated.sigpic
Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.
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Or, you buy 100 Taiwanese scuba snorkels and 100 used shovels and half the customers bury the other half alive for 20 minutes. Then reverse roles. The paper gets wind of this performance art and dedication, people paying money to bury each other because it's scary.sigpic
Another fabulous post from the U.S.Department of Wild Imaginings, now in spectaclar stereo, sponsored by the Adhesives and Sealants Council, suggesting ways to stick things together since the 1800s. Not fabulous in a gay way. Your results may vary. Illinois residents add 8% sales tax. These posts have been made by professional post makers, do not try this type of posting on your own without extensive training, lovely assistants and a trusty clown horn.
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Thanks for all the input everybody! It's much appreciated.
We received a reasonable lead on an inflatable haunt, that will be a great addition to the approximate 30 walls we have in my basement, and we also received year round storage sponsor from one of our club members family which was a huge plus!
Where did you get your fundraising number from Greg? We had a goal of $40,000 I believe, and our chairs told us we made our goal by literally a couple hundred dollars. (Kind of sad, but at least we made it!) I think you are not really understanding my situation, I am just the Haunt Coordinator and an Entertainment chair for our Relay, which is sponsored by our schools chapter of Colleges Against Cancer. We get funding from our school, not the American Cancer Society to host this event, and the haunt I'm working on is for a one night mega attraction that is the biggest on-site fundraiser in our area and people pay to go through it multiple times each year. I am not the owner of any donations or items, I simply do my best to recycle them (which we've done really well so far) and ensure a safe and enjoyable attraction. I am not using any of this to go semi-pro with and won't have access to most of the items until next year when we do it again, and now that we have storage, we can get larger and more elegant than ever! It's fantastic news!
I am working on a separate solo project completely different from this, I'd like to make a haunted old school manor at a local store in their parking lot, it's a non-profit event and all the money raised would just reimburse my expenses and be split 60/40, 60% to the American Cancer Society (I really like helping them out) and 40% to go back into the haunt to make improvements for the following year. I would like to keep that out of here for now, as I'll probably be making a thread for this soon, or join in on some already created "I'm new to going big and I need help!" kind of threads haha.
Thanks for your help and advice Greg, it's much appreciated, I can tell you put a lot of thought into it and I'm sure your haunt must be pretty great by the amount of knowledge you're sharing with a complete stranger.
And Ironman, I'll keep that in mind if this inflatable scAIR structure falls through the cracks. Thanks for the words of wisdom
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Oh, and last quick thing to anyone reading this, if you have unwanted, broken, or dust-collecting props, costumes, etc that you would like to donate, we accept anything in practically any condition, and do have a tax ID number for you to claim on your taxes the next time you fill them out, or if you are a company looking to look great in the eyes of Uncle Sam or would like advertising at the event and on our social blasts we can work with you to ensure a happy and healthy donation. Just send me a PM or email (bobbyarel@gmail.com or arelr1@owls.southernct.edu I check both, but my Gmail account is the one I use most often) and I'll give you all the information you need. Thanks again Everyone!
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Be Safe
Although I'm not sure what your budget is...
As a haunter, I'd stay away from anything that could be of hazard to your patrons and Actors. Although materials come fire-proofed and certified, we still wouldn't use plastic for anything. Safety is our number one concern, as it should be for every haunter. Just think, one mistake to a particular haunted attraction, could affect the entire Industry.
I'd say to personally try sticking with 2x4's, although it can be costly, its durable and safe. I'm not sure what you meant with the plastic but if my assumption was right, you were trying to wrap your walls to darken the show? If so, try buying a cheap outdoor black paint that you can coat the walls with and never have to deal with them in the future.
Before we built our new building, we use to house two additional haunted attractions under a large circus tent set upon a concrete slab. Year after year, we'd uncover dozens of wall panels stored for the season, and put them up along with the tent to create two completely different shows. It was alot of work, but provided more value to the patrons until we were able to afford the new building. It just takes time, but safety is key. =]
Aaron Smith
Niles Haunted House Scream Park
www.haunted.org
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