{"id":68691,"date":"2022-10-24T11:55:42","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T16:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=68691"},"modified":"2022-10-24T11:55:45","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T16:55:45","slug":"haunted-hays-tours-has-another-successful-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=68691","title":{"rendered":"Haunted Hays Tours has another successful year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>STORY BY ALICIA FEYERHERM<br>VIDEO BY TIM SCHOEPFLIN<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hays Community Theater hosted Haunted Hays Tours on Friday and Saturday nights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tour started in 2015 as a fundraiser to add handicap-accessible bathrooms to the old community theater building on 11th street.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe couldn\u2019t open to the public for any events or anything until we had the handicap restrooms in place,\u201d event organizer Sharona Fondoble said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hays Haunted City Tours 2022\" width=\"790\" height=\"444\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ufFqOB7KwEA?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The event was so successful it continued each year. This year\u2019s event saw more than 200 guests attend both Friday and Saturday nights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s fun for the actors, it\u2019s fun for the people who go through it,\u201d Fondoble said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The tour incorporates characters from Hays\u2019 history like Buffalo Bill and Elizabeth Polly. The Ellis County Historical Society allows the theater to use their property, which Fondoble says adds to the authenticity.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Participants are also led down a haunted alley which does not follow a historical theme and is more of a haunted house experience. A chicken exit is available for those who do not want to walk through the alley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no minimum age for the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt just depends on your kids,\u201d Fondoble said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know everybody\u2019s kids.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few scenes include fake gunshots which can be startling for small children. Groups with children also tend to skip the haunted alley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Over the years, tours have stayed somewhat the same, with little changes made each year to improve the tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe have people that they choose to be the same role every year,\u201d Fondoble said. \u201cSo they will find themselves better costumes to make their character better.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An average of 60 volunteers help with the event each year, but Fondoble said ideally, there would be around 80.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe usually have to cut scenes because we don\u2019t have enough people,\u201d Fondoble said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most of the volunteers are adults, but occasionally younger children will volunteer with their parents. FHSU student Khendal Wimberly volunteered this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI have been on a theater hiatus since the pandemic and I have always wanted to something of this type like a haunted house or trail, so I thought it would be the perfect opportunity,\u201d Wimberly said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While many of the volunteers have acting experience, it is not a requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing is that you show up,\u201d Fondoble said.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The event is a rather low commitment with one walk-through day and two performance nights. Interested individuals can find contact information on their website htcks.com or on their FaceBook page.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cCome have fun,\u201d Fondoble said. \u201cIt\u2019s a really fun thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STORY BY ALICIA FEYERHERMVIDEO BY TIM SCHOEPFLIN Hays Community Theater hosted Haunted Hays Tours on Friday and Saturday nights.&nbsp; The tour started in 2015 as&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":68692,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3397,11],"tags":[14480,14878,14876,13444,14877,14738],"class_list":["post-68691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-area-news","category-news","tag-alicia-feyerherm","tag-community-theatre","tag-haunted-tours","tag-hays-community-theatre","tag-hays-haunted-tours","tag-tim-schoepflin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/IMG_1006-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68693,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68691\/revisions\/68693"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/68692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}