As the Boys and Girls Club of Airdrie (BGCA) gears up for the Halloween season and its seventh annual AIRSCARES haunted house, the organization is looking to prepare volunteers with an orientation Sept. 22. Jessica Nash, manager of events and volunteer co-ordination, said this year’s AIRSCARES will add some new features. “This year, we’re doing twelve different productions,” she said. “We’ve added in a couple matinées, for the younger kids that just are too scared to come through the house when it’s big and on and scary.” Opening night of AIRSCARES is Oct. 17, with a first run of productions until Oct. 21 and a second run of productions Oct. 24 to 28. The children’s matinées will be held earlier in the day Oct. 20 and 27, and, for the first time, the haunted house will have an adults-only night Oct. 27. With all those productions, Nash said it’s imperative to fill all the volunteer shifts. Ideally, 45 to 55 volunteers will be available each night of the production, and by the end of run, Nash said close to 2,500 volunteer hours will go into pulling off AIRSCARES. Last year, 104 volunteers helped man the haunted house, and Nash is hoping to surpass that number this year. Volunteers must be older than 14 years old to act in the house and scare visitors, and Nash said adult volunteers are also welcome to help. “It’s really cool to see the different generations of people who love Halloween and want to get dressed up and…scare people,” she said. “It’s an amazing event to be a part of.” For people who scare easily, Nash said, there are a variety of volunteer opportunities outside of the haunted house – including set up and clean-up, parking attendants, line control, tech production and security. There are also acting roles outside the house that aren’t scary, she added. “We kind of have a position for everybody,” Nash said. “You don’t have to scare if you don’t want to, but it’s always nice to have those kids that want to get in there and go crazy.” Volunteer orientation will take place Sept. 22, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the BGCA centre at 200 East Lake Crescent. The orientation will include time to fill out application forms and go over the volunteer handbook, which is currently available online at airdrie.bgccan.com “We basically go through the rules of the house – what’s expected, what we look for in our volunteers, what we would hope our volunteers look for in us as a leadership team,” Nash said. She added the orientation will also cover emergency procedures and evacuation plans – measures she said have, thankfully, not been needed in the past. Volunteers will find out the theme of this year’s haunted house, as well, and learn what actors will need to do inside. Volunteers will also be able to fill out an availability, according to Nash, which will help with scheduling volunteer shifts during the run of productions. For anyone interested in helping with this year’s AIRSCARES event, Nash said the best thing to do is come to the orientation. Anyone who wants to volunteer but can’t attend the orientation can connect with Nash on Facebook through the AIRSCARES volunteer page at facebook.com/AIRscares Nash said AIRSCARES is one of the highlights of the BGCA calendar. In addition to raising the profile of the club in the community, she said, the event provides an opportunity for youth to express themselves in a way they don’t typically have other times of the year, and through that self-expression, form social bonds that don’t come naturally. “What I’ve found is that a lot of my youth that come in, they feel they don’t have friends,” Nash said. “They may be outcasts at school or they may be really shy, but when they get in the AIRSCARES mode, everyone is one giant family. Everyone’s accepted. It doesn’t matter where you came from, if you’re shy. We don’t care. We just take you in and we are one family.”
