Halloween Haunt - 2009
For over 30 years the La Habra Heights Improvement Association has been sponsoring a Halloween Haunt on October 31st.
Jane Williams, a former LHHIA board member, had the idea for the first Haunt in 1980 soon after moving to the Heights. Jane was concerned about letting her small children go trick-or-treating on our dark, winding roads. Jane recruited Sallie Cooke, Heidi Pearce and Ginger Skinner to help plan that first event. Heidi’s son, Eric, and his friends, Chris Fenner and Harold Hu, built the first Haunted House—which was so scary that it had to be toned done a bit to keep little kids from having nightmares after going through it!
The committee also built and decorated a series of trick-or-treat “houses” to make sure that children could experience the fun of collecting candy door-to-door, and they erected game booths at which kids could win prizes.
The planners thought they’d be lucky if 50 children showed up on that first Halloween night. To everyone’s surprise, more than 350 children came! Loret Saylor was the hit of the first Haunt. Dressed in a snake costume, she sat by the entry with a cauldron filled with smoking dry ice. As children arrived with bags of candy to contribute to the trick-or-treat houses, she would move her head from side to side and hiss, “Treatssssss. . .”
Many others have helped with the Haunt over the past quarter century. Greg Laurich supervised Haunted House construction for a number of Halloweens, producing countless delighted screams. For the past several years, Dan Henton and a crew of able young assistants have continued the tradition, creating progressively more elaborate “chambers of happy horror.”
Sallie Cooke has remained active in the Haunt since its inception. Children remember her as the “witch at the door” who greets them as they enter.
Many generous individuals have done a great job as “Head Haunter,” managing the annual event for us in the past. This year Michelle Saldivar has taken over the supervisory role, and she’s putting together a team of volunteers. If you’d like to help—and have a lot of fun in the process—call Michelle at (562) 902-0125.
