Scare Away Hungers sees surge in visitors and donations

The Scare Away Hunger, Cedar Hollow Halloween tradition, has surpassed last year’s totals in all three categories.

The event, which is the fifth in Brandon, attracted 1,833 people this year, up from 1,608 in 2025, while food donations increased to 3,703 items from 3,013.

It also raised $748.25 in cash donations, compared with $603 last year. The donations will go to Samaritan House to support people in need in the community.

The event also benefited from increased community involvement, including a larger volunteer force and donations of equipment and decorations that allowed the haunted house to expand, co-organizer Mike Mitchell said.

“We were bigger this year,” Carla Mitchell said. “We were lucky to get some portable garages donated to us, so we were able to expand our haunt by quite a few more rooms.”

The Mitchells moved to Brandon in 2020 after previously operating a haunted house in Regina. They began Scare Away Hunger at Cedar Hollow in 2021, combining their Halloween attraction with a food-bank drive.

The couple estimated they were entering the final day of the event with about 2,400 food items collected and were hoping to reach 3,000.

“We went into our final scare day. Our goal was to get 3,000 items of food, and we went in with 2,400 before our final day,” Carla told the Sun on Sunday morning.

Halloween was also their busiest night, giving the organizers confidence they had surpassed their target, although the final food count was still being completed Sunday.

“We’re hoping we’ve cracked the 3,000 mark, but I think we definitely have,” Carla said.

“The attraction featured a significantly different layout this year, including additional rooms and a photo booth.”

The expansion was made possible partly through donated portable garages, while community members also contributed Halloween decorations and other materials, Mike told the Sun.

The event also saw its largest volunteer effort to date.

Mike said the organizers traditionally relied mainly on family and friends to fill the haunted house, but this year they opened the opportunity to people throughout the community.

“We had a lot more volunteers,” he said. “We’re very grateful to the high schools and the community for people who just messaged us and wanted to be a part of it.”

On an average night, between 12 and 15 scare actors helped operate the attraction, he said.

The preparation began in September, with the couple pulling props out of storage, building structures and developing new ideas for the attraction.

The Mitchells said their children also helped with the preparations, including building props and contributing ideas for different rooms.

While the event requires months of work, Carla said the involvement of family, friends and community volunteers makes it worthwhile.

“It takes a lot of work, but we have a lot of really good helpers too,” she said. “It is a lot of work, but it’s also lots of fun.”

Weather also co-operated for this year’s event. Aside from rain and some wind on opening night, the Mitchells said conditions were favourable, including on Halloween night.

The community response extended beyond those who came specifically for the haunted house.

Carla said some visitors arrived carrying large baskets of food, while others made monetary donations if they had not realized food was accepted as admission.

She said some of the youngest Halloween visitors also contributed to the food drive.

“They’ll read signs that say like ‘Admission by Food Bank donation,’ and they just reach into their bags and they’re always donating some candy so they can go through the haunted house,” she said.

The attraction is already prompting ideas for next year’s event, with the organizers keeping notes on suggestions from volunteers and changes they could make.

For Mike, however, the biggest takeaway from this year’s event was the community response.

“Very happy with the community of Brandon and everyone who showed up,” he said. “This isn’t us. This is Brandon, and it’s just very touching to see that everyone comes out and supports a good cause.”

Carla said the event has become a way for the family to share their love of Halloween while supporting people in the community.

“We love Halloween. We love to share, of course, all our scares, and we have so much fun doing it,” she said. “The community comes out to support a really great cause.”

» aodutola@brandonsun.com

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