I have attended the Ghost Walk in past years, my girls even at younger ages would go through the scare hours and my son preferred the non-scare, so naturally- I sent the girls off on their own because I needed to be with my son.
When the invitation came in to cover the ghost walk, I was legitimately excited. There was a VIP time for media and despite the fact that I scare quite easily this preview time certainly wasn’t going to be full force. My girls, now 12 and 13 asked to go and my son also 12 politely declined, I believe the exact quote was ‘nope.’
I knew from the moment we got there when a tall frightening creature lingered around the outside line up that they weren’t going to take it easy on us. I tried to pawn off the task on my daughters unsuccessfully but they advised me that I was not getting out of it. Mike Turcotte addressed the crowd, acknowledging sponsors and recipients and cautioning us that it was the first time through and may not be “as scary” as it could be.
He lied.
My 13 year old’s bravado ended 2 minutes in when I was pushed to the lead; yes I was going to let her go first! What happened after that is much of a blank with the exception of a shaky picture of my shoe. There was a lot of screaming, everything was uncomfortably terrifying, my heart rate almost broke my watch and my daughters tried to bribe me with completion of extra chores if we get out sooner but we were too far in, resistance was futile. They were not getting out of it.
When we finally made it through to light again, they begged and begged to go again. Hahaha, you can take my money but not me. 160 phenomenal volunteers, over $100,000 raised for local charities and countless memories for years to come. If you haven’t been you need to go, not only is this an innovative, creative and entertaining event that costs very little it but the money raised has a massive impact locally.
The Ghost Walk for Charity runs from now until October 29, 23 on the second level on the Cornwall Square. There is non-scare hours on the weekends while Thursday through Saturday from 6:00pm to 9:00pm you can get the full ‘give you grey hair’ experience. For more information check out www.theghostwalk.ca
