Mad maze

Mad Mind Massacre opens Monday

By SUSAN THACKER

Enter the Mad Mind Massacre, if you dare.

The Barton County Sheriff’s Office Reserve Unit has been working late, putting the final touches on this year’s haunted house. It opens Monday at 5215 10th St. in Great Bend.

Spooky surprises lurk behind every twist and turn of the maze that opens nightly at 7 p.m. The Mad House Massacre will be open until 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and until midnight on Friday and Saturday. The haunted house will also operate with lights on from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Saturday, as a less-frightening alternative for kids, said Kevin Henderson with the BCSO Reserves.

Admission is $4 for adults or $3 for kids 12 years old and younger. On Friday and Saturday nights, a can of food for the Food Bank is worth $1 off the admission price.

Retired Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Randy Smith, also a reserve officer, said the annual haunted house is a public service project. It raises money to upgrade equipment for the BCSO Reserves. This year, some of the proceeds will also go to the Barton County Sheriff Benefit Association, which pays for officers’ incidental expenses; an example is when an officer breaks a pair of eyeglasses in the line of duty and has to replace them. The project also collects items for the Food Bank and provides an opportunity for young people to volunteer. Smith, who now teaches criminal justice courses at Barton Community College, said several of his students will be working on the haunted house.

Ethan Henderson, Kevin’s son, said groups at Great Bend High School have also been invited to help. Ethan was in on the brainstorming session that produced the name for this year’s haunted house, “The Mad Mind Massacre.” “I think it will just turn people’s minds around,” he said.

“We just want a good, clean, safe place for kids to have fun,” Kevin Henderson said. The haunted house has already passed a fire safety inspection.