Time to prepare for the Nightmare

July 28, 2009

By Lauren McLaughlin

“It’s pretty much all we think about all year long,” said Tony Ragsdale, who volunteers for Nightmare at Beaver Lake every year. “I’m just drawn to it.”

Ragsdale is one of 300-400 volunteers that are necessary to produce Nightmare at Beaver Lake each year. For Ragsdale and the members of Scare Productions Inc., Nightmare at Beaver Lake is not just a Halloween event. It takes months to prepare for a few nights of fright.

Nightmare at Beaver Lake draws large crowds of people to its haunted trail and pavilion — last year 11,000 people attended.

Rotary Club Press Secretary Anita Boser said Nightmare at Beaver Lake is a lot of fun and a lot of work.

The volunteers begin to work on the event the first day of the year, Boser said.

“In the beginning of the year we always have a big brainstorming session and bounce around ideas, then the planning committee decides on which themes work best for the community,” Boser said.

Rotary Club President Norm Bottenberg said Nightmare at Beaver Lake is an event that everyone can participate in.

“We really want something that can involve the whole community,” Bottenberg said.

Bottenberg said Nightmare at Beaver Lake originally started as a way to get kids in the community involved.

“We wanted to get at least 60 kids involved as either actors or just coming to it,” said Bottenberg. “We had about 600 that first year. It was a huge success.”

Scare Productions Inc. President Curt Madden said he hopes many children will be involved this year,

“It gives them something to do, kids can come here after school and work on the sets or makeup or act. They can get really artistic with it,” Madden said. “They can really take something away from it.”

Currently the volunteers are working on designing and building sets for this October’s Nightmare at Beaver Lake.

There are multiple themes this year. The first part of the trail will be based on the Wizard of Oz, said Boser.

“With flying monkeys and everything,” Boser said. “I’m really looking forward to the flying monkeys.”

The rest of the trail will have the crowd favorites such as werewolves and vampires, and the pavilion will be an abandoned chemical factory, Boser said.

Most people volunteer as actors and makeup artists in late September, but volunteers are also needed in the summer to take responsibility for constructing the sets.

Dana Young, secretary of Scare Productions and event coordinator, has been volunteering at Nightmare at Beaver Lake since the first year of the event.

Young is designing and building sets for the haunt at a Kent warehouse.

“I like working with the other people that volunteer here,” Young said. “Some people are better in certain areas and you really get to bounce ideas around to make the sets better.”

“We have over 100 volunteers for the event,” Young said. “But we can always use 100 more.”

“The hardest part is getting volunteers to step up and say they’ll take charge of the set,” Boser said.

Boser said some of the sets and costumes can be modified and then reused.

“I think the trebuchet from last year is going to be used again,” Boser said. “But it’s going to be used very differently.”

However the majority of the sets are built specifically for that year’s event.

We want to do something different every year,” Bottenberg said. “We want people to keep coming back year after year and not get bored with the same sets.”

One of the reasons that Nightmare at Beaver Lake needs so many volunteers is because there is no house that they build sets in. Most of the sets are constructed in a warehouse in Kent and then moved to Beaver Lake Park the first weekend of October.

“With a house we could build everything on site,” Boser said.

“It’s difficult to put everything together in a month, but not having a house gives you more room to work with,” Young said.

Having the haunted adventure wind through forest trails adds something to the experience Boser said.

“There’s just something more scary about being out in the woods at night with monsters,” Boser said. “It’s an effect you can’t get with a house.”

“With an area like this we can really stretch the envelope,” Madden said. “Whatever we can imagine we can do.”

Scare Productions Inc., Vice President Rob Buchta enjoys making use of the forest in the haunt.

“The forest is as much a character as the people and the sets,” Buchta said.

Scare Productions Inc., has been involved with Nightmare at Beaver Lake since 2004.

“The park people and the Rotary Club here are really nice to work with. We feel really appreciated here,” Madden said.

Madden also appreciates the people who come to the event.

“I can’t believe how easily the local audience is entertained,” Madden said. “It’s great, and they love it.”

Intern Lauren McLaughlin can be reached at 392-6434, ext. 244 or samrev@isspress.com. To comment on this story visit www.sammamishreview.com.