Haunted Woods Guidelines

David Varney (513)

Please arrive to the Haunted Woods and report to the area you will be working at 5:30 PM. Ticket sales will be starting at 6:30 PM.

We need to make sure all areas are ready to go and all last minutes preparations complete by this time.

Each volunteer is requested to dress-up in some sort of costume no matter how elaborate. We are trying to eliminate confusion

In addition to a costume, all volunteers will have their hand stamped which will identify that they are a volunteer to the concession

workers, guides, woods security, etc. In order to receive your stamp, you must have pre-registered with me as a volunteer either in

person or through another person such as a skit manager or area leader. You will receive your hand stamp at the beginning of each

evening. If you have a problem with your hand stamp, please come and see me for another one and NOT the ticket booth where you

checked in when arriving.

HAUNTED WOODS NIGHT(S)

All volunteers are entitled to, with the presence of their hand stamp, FREE small fountain drinks, coffee or hot chocolate and popcorn.

If you are working up front in any of these areas, you will receive your food and drinks from the concession stand as in

normal operation.

If you are working in the back as a guide or skit worker, we have made special arrangements for your food, drinks, etc. In the

past, the barn up near the driveway of the Haunted Woods was used for the witches. This year, we have decided to use it for

the guides and for providing food/drinks to the workers in the back. This way you will not have to travel up front to get a

drink, hamburger, etc.

All other rules apply in regards to your hand stamp, tickets, etc. as outlined above. When you want a drink, hamburger or hotdog, one

of the guides will be assigned to handle taking your ticket and getting your food for you. We plan to have coffee, hot chocolate,

canned pop, water, hamburgers, hotdogs and chips available for the workers in the back. There will also be a picnic table for you to

sit at and a fire for you to huddle around to get warm.

If a person becomes unruly, please have someone contact the head of your area, me or the local Sheriff’s Deputy on duty for the

evening.

If you can, please help us in keeping the Haunted Woods area cleaned up while you are passing through to your area or visiting

another. If you see something that needs some maintenance, please have someone contact me to make sure that it is taken care of so

that no one or nothing gets hurt or damaged.

If you spot individuals entering the woods from the fields off of Todds Run or the surrounding areas, please bring this to my attention.

When people enter into the woods without purchasing a ticket, they take away from the overall success of WJAA and also pose a risk

to everyone involved. If an individual is willing to "steal" a trip through the woods, will they also steal or damage something else?

All volunteers will be entitled to FREE small fountain drinks, coffee, hot chocolate and popcorn BUT must have their hand stamped in

order to receive these items. In addition to their hand stamp, they must have a ticket for a hotdog or hamburger. When receiving a

hamburger or hotdog ticket from a volunteer, please place the ticket in the specified location. All other food items outside of those

listed are to be purchased from the volunteers.

*If they do not have a hand stamp, please have them see someone in the ticket booth in order to check-in.

As a tractor driver or wagon rider, you will be the first people that the visitors to the WJAA Haunted Woods will encounter. Your

costume, personality, etc. will begin the experience and also end the experience for the visitors. You are requested, along with all

other volunteers, to come dressed in a costume. As the first experience of a customer visiting the Haunted Woods, you can determine

how elaborate to make your costume to insure that the visitors begin with a BANG!! Also, make sure you dress warm because you

will be outside in the cold with possible rain and temperatures in the 40s. If you need to, please bring a blanket, hand warmers, etc. to

help stay warm while riding the tractors back and forth to the woods.

All guides are requested to either dress up as a witch (females) or a vampire (males). These costumes allow us to create a common

theme among the guides which allow the skit workers and visitors to know and identify their leaders while in the woods.

As a guide, you can expect to be addressing groups of 12-15 people or more depending on the volume of people we have coming

through. If you are not comfortable with speaking to a group of people, please let me or the guide leader know. This way,

arrangements can be made to pair your with another guide who is more comfortable with this task.

While guiding groups through the woods, you WILL encounter individuals who may be under the influence and may not following

directions while in the woods and causing trouble for other trying to enjoy the Haunted Woods. If you encounter an individual like

this and need assistance, please STOP the group, remove the person from the trail and have the trailing guide or responsible adult from

a skit escort the person from the woods. Then contact me or the local sheriff’s deputy we have in duty to have the person escorted

from the premises.

As a skit manager, you are responsible for controlling all workers within the woods and the overall safety of the visitors to Haunted

Woods. If someone is not cooperating and is causing more harm than good to your skit, please contact me or your area leader and we will

assist in helping remove this individual from the skit.

If someone in your skit is blatantly hit, spit on, etc. by an unruly visitor, please use discretion in asking the person to leave. Please use

your best judgment in these situations since it is not always easy to tell if someone was hit accidentally or not. If you experience an

unruly visitor, please escort the person out of the woods and contact me or the local sheriff deputy who will be on duty.

WJAA definitely appreciates and understands the hard work and effort that skit manager and workers take on in creating and running

a skit and doesn’t want to see anyone hurt or anything damaged while operating a skit. When operating a skit, please keep safety in

mind and make sure to check all electric connections and any other mechanisms to make sure they are safe for you, your volunteers

and those visiting the Haunted Woods.

accordingly and if you get cold please make your way up front to warm up where you can warm up and grab something to eat/drink

before returning to the woods.

Over the years, the woods have become littered with previous year’s garbage left behind by skit workers. Please remind everyone to

discard their trash in the appropriate locations so we can keep the woods looking great each year.