The next year I wanted to improve upon what we did the previous year. We also didn't want to do the same thing every year.

So I came up with two different rooms to replace the Mad Scientist and the Witches.

Also, this was the year where we introduced the idea of a pumpkin carving contest. My thought on this was by having the contest, and having the kids carve them at home with their parent it would provide something extra for the pumpkin patch while adding a whole new aspect to the event (carving contest). So after they entered through the hanuted tree they entered the pumpkin patch where all of the glow stick or flashlight illuminated carved pumpkins were displayed.

The first room was the gypsies. We had two of our members dressed as gypsies and they would read palms, telk about the zodiac signs of the kids after they told them their birthday, etc. Kept it general, such as "you were born under the sign of scorpio. This means that you are very intelligent and strong willed." Things like that. Also had them tell them what stars were born under their sign, like "Miley Cyrus is a scorpio, just like you", or something like that. Would even tell some kids "August 4th, you were born on the same day as Zack and Cody". The kids loved that.

The next room was the most difficult to define, but it came out so great. We brought the kids in to the Wizard's Room. One member was sitting in a rocking chair. We had the room filled with wizardly things, like a book shelf, an old globe of the world, the cauldron with dry ice, etc.

We had a good sized rug on the ground in front of the wizard and had the kids sit down on the rug. The wizard, who was dressed the part, was going to tell them a story.

The story went that there was once a prince that wanted to fin the woman that would become his queen. So he went to the gypsie queen and asked for her help. She told him that he would have to travel to a distant land, across the lake. So the prince left and along the way he met the most powerful, amazingly handsome, most intelligent wizard of all time. He told the wizard of his quest and the wizard gave him an amulet that would call the wizard to him when ever he needed...

The prince went on and found the lake. The lake seemed to go on forever in each direction. He needed a way to get past it but didn't know how. He used the amulet and called the wizard to him. The wizard knew just what to do. He cast a spell and made the water disappear...

- At this point the wizard breaks from the story and asks the kids if they think that a wizard could make the lake disappear. He then calls one of the kids up to him and brings out from a side table two cups. One, which is clear, is half full of water. The other, which is not clear, has a special absorbant powder in it. It's called Abzorbit, and we purchased it from a company called Absorbent Specialty Products ( www.absorbsp.com ). This stuff is amazing. It pretty much instantly turn the water into a gel when mixed. So the wizzard holds the cup with the powder and has the kid helped pour the water into the cup. He shakes it a little bit, says a couple of magic words and then has the kid put their hand out. He then turns the cup over and the water appears to have disappeared...

Back to the story after sitting the kid back down...

So the wizard teleported away and the prince rode on forward over the dru lake bed. He rode for days and came upon the tower where he knew that the princess was being held. Guarding the door was a huge ogre. He stepped forward with his sword drawn and said to the ogre "step aside for I am here to free my future queen". The ogre laughed and said, "Even if you slay me there is no way for you to enter this tower as it is magically sealed. You have to know the correct word to say or you will not be able to get in. But, as I do not wish to be slain I will make you a deal. If you can guess what number I am thinking of I will tell you the magic word and I will leave this place."

The prince agreed and once again used the amulet to call the wizard to him. The wizard looked at the ogre and read his mind and told the number that the ogre was thinking to the prince.

- At this point it is time for another "trick". The wizard will call a volunteer up. He then explains that behind him there are four pictures (8 x 11 pages) with numbers on them between 1 and 15. He then tells the kid to pick a number between 1 and 15. Once that is done he tells him to tell the number to his parent or friend or one of the other kids. Each of the pictures with numbers is a different color to make it easier. The wizard asks the kid "Is your number on the yellow picture?", "Is it on the orange picture?", etc. This trick is actually very simple, but difficult to explain, but I'll try...

The four pages have different numbers as follows:

Card #1 has numbers 1 - 3 - 5 - 7 - 9 - 11 - 13 - 15 and is yellow
Card #2 has numbers 2 - 3 - 6 - 7 - 10 - 11 - 14 - 15 and is orange
Card #3 has numbers 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 and is red
card #4 has numbers 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 and is green

Here's the simple trick:

Lets say the number the kid picked is 12. The number 12 is on the red and the green pictures. The first number of the red card is 4 and the first number of the green card is 8. 8+4 = 12!!! Tada!!!

Lets say the number is 15. All four of the pictures has the number 15 on it. So the first number on each card is 1 - 2 - 4 and 8. Add those together and you get 15. Tada!!!

Fun huh? And no one will have any clue how you're doing it, not even the parents.

Back to the story.

So the ogre amazed that the wizard could read his thoughts tells the prince the magic word and leaves. The wizard teleports away again. The prince says the magic word and enters the tower. He goes up the long and winding stairway until he find the room that he knows must hold his future queen. He enters the room and finds the most beutiful woman he has ever seen chained to the wall. He tries to break her free using his sword, but it's no use. These must be magic chains. So he once again uses his amulet and calls the wizard to him. The wizard used his magic to free the princess from the chains.

- The wizard breaks from the story and pulls out one of those ring tricks that you can buy at any magic shop.

Back to the story.

So the wizard teleports away as the prince escapes down the stairs with his beloved. As they leave the tower a loud wind is heard and the princess says that the dragon is back. Turns out that a dragon was holding the princess captive. The prince uses his amulet and calls the wizard to him. The wizard knew just what to do, being the smartest wizard ever. He explained that the dragon would be able to stop any attack, but they can't see very well when it is foggy out. So the wizard took his staff and said the magic words and smoke shot forth from the serpent's mouth that adorned his staff...

- Time for the last trick. The wizard just so happens to have a staff with a serpent's head (something I once purchased from a halloween shop). I took a tube and ran it down the staff and out the bottom. That tube I adapted to a fog machine. So when you press the bottun (the machine we used actually has a remote) the fog shoots from the serpent's mouth because it goes up the tube. Not as hard as it sounds, but we did find that due to steam you need to drain the water out of the tube after every third trick or so.

Back to the end of the story.

So the prince, using the fog to conceal his attack, slayed the dragon and took his princess back to his kingdom where they were wed and they lived happily ever after.

The end...

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PresidentJim

Sure, I would love to. Am actually very proud of this event and specifically the "spook house" areas...

For our first year we wanted an area like this, but were nervous about an actual haunted house. So instead I came up with the idea of having a mad scientist's lab and a witches' den. We purchased one of those inflatible halloween hanuted trees, the ones that have sound effects and is big enough to walk through. Each year we use this as our entrance...

We get some of that "Do not enter" ribbon to use as the entrance blocker.

For our first year we had a room that we called the pumpkin patch. Simply some hay bales lines a path. There were donated pumpkins, a scarecrow, corn stalks, gourds, etc. We also had sound effects playing and some fake ravens, owls and bats hanging or on the scarecrow or pumpkins.

This brough you to the Mad Scientists lab. We had one of our members dressed up as the Mad Scientist. He was wearing a lab coat, had glasses on and had his hair wild using glow in the dark neon gel. This room was very neon and we used some black lighting. There was a static ball and a bunch of lab equipment. There was also a lab skeleton for efeect. On the lab table we had a microscope that had things like spider legs and insect wings that could be looked at.

The last room was the witches' Den where we had two of our members dressed up as old crones. There was a cauldron with some dry ice. We also had a bunch of contaners labels with things like "Bats Wings", "Zombie Hair", "Spider Legs", etc.

The crones were "mixing a brew" and needed the help of the kids. They would call one of the kids up and have them dig into one of the lebeled bowls to add the component to the brew. Some items in the bowls were dried corn for "teeth", mellon balls for "eyes", things like that. The faces the kids made were priceless.

We did have a foot activated air controlled that the crones would step on each time a component was added to the brew. This would make the fog from the dry ice blast a bit for effect.

Once the brew was done we had the crones pull out their pet spider, which was a fake spider connected to a small hose that ran up the sleeve of one of the crones. She would pretend to feed the brew to the spider. Then she would have the kids come over to pet it. This thing can be purchased in most halloween stores. It has one of those rubber sqeeze balls on the other end and if you squeeze it it makes the spider jump. So when the kids came over they would make the spider jump startling the kids.

PresidentJim

Hello, We are changing our fall event a bit this year and one thing we have discussed has been the spook house. I love your ideas, could tell me how you formed them.
Thank you so much!!!

We charge a minimal fee for most of our events of this nature, including our annual "Harvest Hoopla" (Halloween Party).

We do many things for our event, most are themed to the event.

We call it Harvest Hoopla so as to not offend anyone.

We do allow the children and parents to come dressed in costume, but we do not require it, do not provide awards for it, and do not allow anything gory or inappropriate.

We have a DJ and DJ games, such as "Pass the Pumpkin (using small stuffed pumpkins as the "hot potato") and the "Mummy Wrap", which teams up a child and an adult, with the child wrapping the adult in toilet paper.

We have a party games area with things such as bean bag toss (at a pumpkin board), Ring Toss (on to pumpkin stems), etc.

We have a pumpkin carving contest, with the kids and parents carving prior to the evening. The entries are displayed and prizes awarded for certain categories, such as Most School Spirit, Most Original, etc. Also, no candles. To light them up a flahlight or glowstick must be used.

We have a spook house/area. In years past we have has a witche's den, a mad scientist, gypsies and even a wizard. I can provide details if you would like for each, let me know which one.

This year we are actually looking to have a mini Hanuted House, age appropriate of course.

Hope this helps,
PresidentJim

If you had it in the original donation letter, I wouldn't think you would need it in the thank you... Also I wouldn't add it unless requested by the company with the donation.

Thanks for all of your responses. I have one more question...do I need to include the school's special number (is it the tax id number?) on the thank you notes so that their donation is tax deductible? Or is it enough for it to be written on school letterhead and the number doesn't need to be included? Thanks!