Andrews – The Valleytown Cultural Arts & Historical Society provided plenty of happiness as well as haunts Saturday after Andrews’ annual Trunk or Treat.
Conceived as a collaboration between the Andrews Chamber of Commerce and Andrews Recreation Department as a way to reintroduce regular events at the center with its improved air system, the evening was filled with crafts and creeps with its Halloween Fun Zone for children under age 12, along with its Dungeon of Doom for those braver souls daring to tour the dark recesses of the building.
Board President Tim Comstock said the event raised $1,000, with all the proceeds benefitting the center. The community’s support of this event is “exactly what we needed to help re-establish the center as a place for the community to engage and gather.”
The event began with longtime Andrews Elementary School librarian Erla Jones reading spooky stories to delight and fright kids of all ages. After the tall tales, the craft space, set up and manned by volunteers Tami Condit and Holly Salinas with others, provided a variety of treats to take along including fabric pumpkin keepsake crafts, creating slime from kitchen ingredients along with sugar cookie decorating to put on a sweeter spin.
Board members Dayna Jones and Margaret Phillips were on hand to both introduce guests to the speaker as well as selling concessions. Jones regaled everything exquisitely 1980s with her leg warmers and neon attire, while Phillips struck quite the devilish figure, red horns and tail diligently roaming the area for rascals and rogues.
For those willing to brave the lower portions of the 100-year-old building, the Dungeon of Doom offered various scary vignettes from the bowels of the darker underbelly, including riffs on almost every famous horror character.
Those vignettes within the different cells of the basement include an Egyptologist who’s met their match and mausoleum; the sort of chamber that can become a real torture; a deranged doctor who manipulates electricity and body parts to create maniacal mutations; an encounter with a count by the name of Dracula and his latest vampiric conquest; a hallway of horror not for arachnophobic; a chef whose ingredients may include a missing digit or limb, and which is most definitely “Mystery Meat”; and much more.
All the rooms of doom are manned by a crew of both seasoned performers of various plays as well as a new crop of volunteers eager to assist in the hauntingly well appointed nights of fright.
Putting together a spectacular assortment of board members, family, friends and volunteers, Comstock alongside board member and local musician Troy Underwood assembled this local band of merrymakers to entertain the community and so much so that they were able to corral a whole new family of performers including the Cates family: Andy, Cody, Nick and Renee.
All four enjoyed their characters, who range from the deranged to the undead. “We’ve loved every moment of it and look forward to more,” Renee Cates said. “We’ve found our people.”
Due to the crowds lined up, Comstock said the group decided to give the community more of what it wants.
“We’re doing it again on Halloween because we had to turn away such a crowd Saturday evening that we want to again offer everyone a chance to come back and experience the chills and thrills,” he said.
The Dungeon of Doom will be open from 6-9 p.m. Thursday; recommended for ages 12 and up; cost is $10 each. The Valleytown Cultural Arts Center is at 125 Chestnut St. downtown.
Details: Visit vcahs.com.