The Niles Scream Park is best known for its ability to scare the pants off of visitors year after year.

What some people don’t know is the park is equally good at doing something much more important — raising money for a myriad of good causes.

The scream park is not a typical business. It is actually a non-profit community project that relies on hundreds of volunteers to staff its awe-inspiring attractions each year.

Volunteers come from more than 65 Michiana area community and school organizations, including local Boy and Girl Scout troops, church youth groups and booster groups for colleges and high schools.

It truly takes a community to make this haunted house happen and we applaud all the people who have contributed to the effort.

How much work goes into it?

According to park leaders, more than 20,700 hours were volunteered by over 570 different people before and during the scream park’s 22 nights of operation last year.

You can expect the same type of volunteer effort during this year’s “scream season” which begins Friday.

Anyone who finds the courage to visit the park — and we hope you do — can take comfort in knowing they are helping others.

Last year, the park generated more than $100,000 for local charities, including the Make a Wish Foundation, Niles Drama Club and American Cancer Society, to name a few.

More than $1.4 million has been raised since 1996.

Contributions include scholarships to students at Niles, Brandywine, Dowagiac and Edwardsburg schools. In fact, the scream park has awarded more than $45,000 in scholarships to 119 local high school students since 1992.

That’s a lot of money going to help kids get “scary” smart.

With so many reasons to go to the scream park, we can’t think of a better way to spend an hour or two this Halloween season.

 

Opinions expressed are those of the editorial board consisting of Publisher Michael Caldwell and editors Ambrosia Neldon, Craig Haupert, Ted Yoakum and Scott Novak.