Clinton Township Newsletter

2 8 o c t o b e r 2 0 2 1 W W W . C L I N T O N T W P N E W S L E T T E R . C O M Halloween is a personal favorite holiday, and this month, Clinton Three Q spoke with Ray Bindus, Master of Horrors at the Clinton Haunted Red Mill, to see what lies in store for this year's scares. C3Q: I know it's locally famous for being a bit haunted, but how did the Haunted Red Mill get its start? RB: The Haunted Mill started 31 years ago with a small group of people as a one-day event for children, and it grew from there. It's grown exponentially i n t h e p a s t e i g h t years, and this year, we're celebrating 30 Years of Fears. We average about 75 actor-volunteers every year, and about 30-40 people who help with setup. Generally, we have a cast of people w h o c o n s i s t e n t l y return every year, but every year, we add a few more haunters. We have a full makeup and costume crew, and volunteers are given a nightly assignment. It is very inventive, and there is a lot of room for creativity. The average age of actors is 35- 40, but we have some college students from Rider and from RVCC, and some high school students. Most actors are 18 years old and above, and the younger ones are supervised. We're always looking for more volunteers, f o r a c t i v i t i e s f r o m painting to acting, and interested people can go to our Facebook page or the Red Mill website. The more the merrier! The Clinton community is generous and generally supplies the volunteers with food and drinks, especially since they are mostly volunteering from 5:00 pm to 12:00 am. C3Q: How much money is raised during the course of the Haunted Mill? How was the Haunted Red Mill effected by the pandemic, and did the Mill suffer any Hurricane Ida damage recently? RB: We are an entirely volunteer, 5013c organization. Our record year was two years ago, we brought in $152,000 for the Red Mill, and it made up something like 50% of the Red Mill budget. (The next closest fundraiser generally brings in $30k). On average, we get about 6 to 7 thousand people through the entire Haunted Red Mill per season. Last year, because of Covid, we were unable to have the Haunted Mill in person, so we got creative. We did the first virtual Haunt, and had two professional ghost-hunters from the tv series "Unexplained Cases" come and film their experience at the Red Mill. We built about 25% of the usual set and decorated the mill. Unfortunately, the virtual fundraiser did not make as much money as in-person years, so this year we added a weekend to make up for last year, and are hopeful for lots of visitors. Fortunately, the Red Mill did not suffer much damage from the recent Hurricane Ida flooding in September, we were extremely lucky. We started setting up in mid-September, and worked on the setup for four weeks, and we're ready to open on October 9. C3Q: I know that there are things available for a less scare-tolerant audience... can you talk about these options? Also, give us a sneak peek: what are your personal favorite props and scares? RB: There are some great less-scary options. We have Happy Haunts every Saturday Morning, where smaller children can participate in one section of the tour, go on a hay ride, and have cider and face painting; it's a lot of fun. We also have a 'Lights On' Guided tour on Thursdays, which is a backstage tour for people who want to see how it's done. We turn on the lights, and have a set tour of all the automation and special effects. We work year round on new props to add. Often, our devious minds start rolling right after Opening Night to think about next year's scares. The first prop I built was one of my favorites; a wall with rotating pictures and a siren and fog, and we still use it every year; but every year, I try to top myself. One of my memorable favorites in the past was a creepy "gas chamber" that we constructed. We do pride ourselves in getting people to pee their pants with fear. One year, we were inspired by a Horror Convention in St Louis, (which is also attended by special effects creators from Eastern State, Disney, and Six Flags), and we made a "haze room," which has a light fog with lasers at hip-level, and you can't see below the lasers, which makes for great ankle-grabbing scares. One of our other favorite props is called 'The Vortex,' which is a 20-foot long spinning hallway, which messes up everybody! Overall, it is very fun and a fantastic time, and if you go to dinner in Clinton and bring your receipt to the Haunted Red Mill tour afterwards, we upgrade you from a regular ticket to a VIP pass called "Dinner and a Haunt", which allows you to access via a shorter VIP line. This event brings people to Clinton Township and is great for business in town, and we hope to see you there. C3Q: Thank you, Horror Master Ray Bindus. Happy Haunting! Rachel Sprague, a resident of Clinton Township, has a degree in journalism from Rutgers. With her husband Russell, Rachel is raising two young children in the Clinton Township School District. She thinks that Clinton Township is a delightful place to live. Welcome to with Rachel Sprague We're always looking for more volunteers, for activities from painting to acting, and interested people can go to our Facebook page or the Red Mill website (theredmill. org). The more the merrier! – Ray Bindus, Master of Horrors at the Clinton Haunted Red Mill

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