October 12, 2024

#CountdownTo Halloween2024 - a sneak peek!


Some backstory for this post.... 
I volunteer on a search & rescue team. 
Since 2020, I've been attending a Halloween Camp that's been put on by another team (teams work and train together a lot so we get to know a lot of people).  This year I was asked to help out!

I'll write another post all about it, so stayed tuned.

I can't believe I didn't post about the 2021 / 2022 camps!!!!

So I arrived Friday night around 6:30 pm - my job was going to be setting up everyone's favorite event, the haunted house / building search.  This is the sneak peek that I'm intentionally posting after the fact.  

So when the actual game (a relay race) happens, the room will be filled with fog and strobe lights.  Teams are given a list of items to find.  You basically have to memorize the list because you can't take it in with you.  One person per team goes in with the only flashlight and it has a red lens so you can see thru the strobes.  You have to find one item and take it out so the next person on your team can go in.  You can't have duplicate items so you have to remember what's been found and what hasn't.   

In the past, someone else spends 2-3 days putting this together but this year they, and all their stuff, couldn't make it.  So I had to make do with considerably less stuff & time, since I did want to participate in the rest of Camp. 

Day 1 - I got there around 6:30 pm and worked until 10pm.
I had company!
This building is located on a nature center in a highly wooded area, so I really wasn't surprised. 
One of Chuck's cousins were there!
It seemed a lot bigger & more spacious in there than before, so I tried to fill it up.
This "table" is actually a makeshift stretcher I found out back - 2 sturdy branches logs with strips of duct tape wrapped between them to make the basket. 
This was actually a really nice skeleton - heavy and very solid.  
I wonder where it came from?
Day 2 - I worked a couple hours here & there between other activities. 
The teams actually came to play here at like 2am.
This really just served to remind my how much I dislike fake spiderwebs.  
Altho they were needed to create the spooky ambiance. 
I wish I would have thought to go thru and video the next day when they were taking K9s thru for some training. It actually did look pretty cool.  More stuff was added, so I never saw any of the clues. 

While setting up, I'd found a box on the table and looked inside and there was some gauze & sticks & random other stuff in there that looked gross, so I opted not to use any of that.  I'm so glad I didn't since I found out later that the sticks had been picked up at a particularly gory recovery scene a few years ago (recovery means the person being searched for isn't going to be alive) and had been UNDERNEATH the subject!!   

That being said - there were quite a few certified K9 search dogs there and some in training.  K9s specialize in trailing (on a lead, following a specific scent), area search (they run loose, wearing a GPS on their collar covering a lot of area, quickly) and HRD (human remains detection).  All of the K9s had the option of searching in the haunted house, if the handler wanted to.  

Anyhooo.  I'll post more about the rest of Camp soon!

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