A scary good time

by Staff Pioneer Times
13 years ago

Houlton Pioneer Times photo/Joseph Cyr
NE-CLR-Hayride-dc-pt-43CREATURE FEATURE — Students from Southern Aroostook Community School are dressed to kill as they portray vampires, ghosts and other scary creatures on the Oakfield Haunted Hayride. The ride continues Friday and Saturday in Oakfield.
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    OAKFIELD — The Oakfield Toys for Tots program is hoping that fake blood, makeup and horror scenes will help scare up a few extra dollars this Halloween season so that local children will have a more joyous Christmas.
    The Oakfield Haunted Hayride continues this weekend with shows Friday, Oct. 26 and Saturday, Oct. 27 at the Smoki Haulers Snowmobile Club in Oakfield starting at 7 p.m. The cost is $5 per person, with all proceeds benefiting the Toys for Tots of Oakfield. The club is located a short distance off Interstate 95 on the River Road.
    “We have done a haunted hayride for a number of years, but this is the first time that we have had it benefit Toys for Tots,” said Blanche Russell, who along with the help of Amanda Burpee and Tracy Tarr, organized the event. Russell is the area coordinator for Toys for Tots, which covers Smyrna to Benedicta.
    Traditionally, the ride benefited one of the classes at Southern Aroostook Community School, but this year the decision was made to give the proceeds to the Toys for Tots program. About 60 students from SACS and a few from Hodgdon High School volunteered for the event. The students receive “community service” credit from their schools for participating.
    The Oakfield Haunted Hayride is a half-mile loop filled with 18-20 scenes filled with shrieks and screams, blood and gore, ghosts and ghouls and all of the usual Halloween fare designed to evoke scares from those passing by on the wagon.
    Russell said the group spent about two months organizing the hayride, while construction commenced about three weeks ago.
    “We had trouble in the past with things getting vandalized, so we can’t put them out too early,” she said.
    She hopes to raise $3,000 from the four nights of hayrides.
    “The economy is hard,” Russell said. “Our (Toys for Tots) budget was cut in half, so the only way to fulfill toys for Christmas is to try and raise the money.”