Gouverneur High fundraiser a scream

GOUVERNEUR — The Gouverneur High School Choral and Orchestral Development Association scared up a novel fundraiser Sunday.

Students set up spooky scenes along a wooded trail in Spragueville for their second annual Trail of Terror event.

"I spent a month planning this, and when I go through, I still get scared," said Sarah A. VanVleet, president of the student musical organization.

Jeanne K. LaVack, a 2009 Gouverneur High graduate who volunteered her family's farmland to host the attraction, said she got chills going down the path late at night.

"I knew where everything was, but I still screamed," she said.

As guests huddled together, student guides led them in groups down a dirt road through the woods. Along the way, they encountered a variety of ghouls and movie murderers.

Zombies stumbled out of the forest, a girl in a coffin became a vampire's dinner, and a man in a Michael Myers mask menaced the crowd with a chain saw.

There were screams, but there were also some guffaws.

Generator-powered lights kicked on at each bend in the trail so that guests could see the action. The lights also distracted visitors briefly while a student dressed as a maniacal clown sneaked into their midst and began to cackle.

One little girl clutched her stuffed animal to her chest while making her way down the trail Sunday night. When a werewolf jumped out of a tree and began to snarl, she said, "Mommy, it's not a monster, it's just a puppy."

Richard R. Haynes, a music teacher at Gouverneur High School, said he wanted to come up with an original fundraiser for the Choral and Orchestral Development Association that would coincide with the village's Oktoberfest celebrations.

When Miss LaVack said he could check out her family's farmland for a good spot to "haunt," he knew the trail was the place to do it.

"I thought it was perfect. They have all this broken-down farm equipment and it's more like a road," he said.

Sixty student, parent and alumni volunteers helped with the Trail of Terror this weekend, whether they were selling tickets and hot chocolate, escorting groups or donning costumes to scare the dickens out of people. Their goal was to beat last year's profit of $4,000.

The musical group uses the money to purchase tickets so students can take field trips to concerts, operas and musicals in Potsdam and Syracuse throughout the year.