by Supervising Ranger Jim Serpa

The lights were on; the generators humming; the rangers in place and the crowds were just streaming in. Why was it then that my back and legs already cried for a stool? Well, for many of us, the set-up started at around 9 AM that morning and the clock was now pushing 6:15 PM.

Senior Park Aide Brian Lane had taken on the daunting task of coordinating the whole affair and he had finally realized what interpreter Vicki Wiker was talking about last year when she said she was overwhelmed. But to Brian's credit he did a fine job, with the help of Vicki and others.

Many of us long timers agreed that, this 10 th Annual Doheny Halloween Haunt, just may have been the best one yet. It certainly looked the coolest. The Rangers educational booths were all spookily lit, all except Brad Barker's whose bat exhibit glowed like a beacon in the night sky. There was lifeguard Bill Pfeiffer and my booth on sharks that resembled a well-appointed pirate ship, this thanks to camphost Rudy Linder with assistance from Stan Hart and Larry Smith.

Possibly the neatest aspect of this year's “Haunt” was the Doheny Maintenance staff's fun center that was the anchor to the whole festivities. Decorated to the hilt and lit very creatively, the fun center was the brainchild of Maintenance Worker Two Robbie Reschke. Robbie designed a wonderful area where people could redeem tokens they had “won.” To win a token you must first answer a question about the topics the booths highlighted. For example if you went to the snake booth, listened for a while to Ranger Brent Hufford talk on snakes and then answered a question he posed to you on snakes, you were awarded a token to play a game. We really succeeded in making this a top notch educational event this year, with this new tack on learning. People were actually coming back time and time again to each booth to learn more about, snakes, bats, nocturnal animals, birds of prey, coyotes and sharks so that they could then play more games. Sometimes it pays to be sneaky in facilitating people to learn.

Aside from the learning booths we had our talking magic mirror, manned by camphost Jerry Olsen for the third year in a row, our face painting done by volunteers Jeanette and Eugenia Shue, Patty Hart's cookie booth and Lori Coble and Denise Estrada's crafts center. The cookies were baked and donated to us by the Laguna Cliffs Marriott across the street from the park. Lemonade was again donated by Dana Point Carl's Jr. on PCH.

We were all pleased to see Old Town San Diego Supervising Ranger Jody Kummer transform into Madame Jody the fortune teller. Madame Jody would tell fortunes by reading the kelp leaves. Let's not forget that the Halloween Haunt was Jody's idea 10 years ago when she was still working at Doheny.

Finally there was the wonderfully eerily graveyard arranged by Denise Smith with its wonderful props, fog, lighting and scary sounds piped in by retired ranger Jim Long. Some of the tombstones read, “Barry M. Deep,” “I.L. Beaback,” “Tom B. Stone,” and “R. U. Next.” Its always fun to watch people read and figure out the words. Some of the others helpers included Daniel Pollak, Adam Jones, Carrie Lee, Bill Brooks, Senovia Olsen, Zack and Sarah Barker.

As always we asked the visiting public for a donation of non-perishable food as an entrance fee. In times past we have donated the food to local shelters. This year we gathered 300 pounds of food and donated it to the victims of the devastating Southern California fires, and specifically to the State Parks families that have had the homes and parks burned to the ground. Thanks again San Clemente Maintenance Jeff Lessley for taking the food up to them. The DSBIA board should feel good that we really hit the educational aspects of the event on the nail head and the proceeds went to such a worthy cause. Thanks for supporting us again for the 10th year.