Photos by Catherine Stachowiak
Folks enjoyed a scary evening, after volunteers built a neato Haunted House Maze, for the purpose of bringing the community into unity at Halloween.
The Kern River Valley Art Association volunteered a lot of effort toward this project so the public could enjoy the scary recycled maze at their first Masquerade Ball, this past Saturday, at the Art and Community Center in Wofford Heights.
The planning initially began when the Kern River Valley Bridge Connection, with Chris Zuber from Hopester, came to the KRVAA asking them to assist with an Escape Room for the Skate Park Trunk or Treat event, saying they’d give KRVAA the materials afterwards, if they helped.
President of the KRVAA, Buffalo Folsom said, “We did a lot of work to get it to the Skate Park for his event. And then we tore everything down and brought it here and redid it the way we wanted it.”
The KRVAA decided to use the materials from the Escape Room, for a Haunted House Maze, which would be friendly for children, yet a bit scary.
Folsom’s two grandsons helped with the maze and were doing the jump scares during the evening.
Lowes, store number 2424 of Bakersfield, donated buckets to hold up the maze.
Volunteer Kimberly Salazar painted the maze.
Another volunteer, who helped build the Haunted House Maze, Mara Heller explained the story. “They told me what was going on, when to be here. I showed up and realized they didn’t have as much help as they needed,” she said. “Last weekend we helped Chris Zuber put it up as the Escape Room. I had to help redesign the layout. I helped build the original panels, and then helped build it at the park, and then moved it all here.”
Heller spent days up on scaffolding, preparing for the event, which included the Masquerade Ball.
