West Virginia post’s haunted house opens up its facility to younger members of community

With a 9,000-square-foot building as its home, American Legion Post 71 in Charles Town, W.Va., automatically has a large presence in the community. But its members are striving to increase that presence through a variety of different programs that appeal to entire families – not just veterans.

One of those programs started last year and is happening again this month: the post’s second annual haunted house. A portion of the post’s upper floor has been transformed into a spooky spectacle, complete with both exhibits and live actors meant to scare – but not be too scary to – local children.

The idea came from a conversation between current Post 71 Commander Cormac Quinn and Junior Vice Commander Joe Malcom last year. “(Quinn) said, ‘I’ve always wanted to do a haunted house. We’ve got the space. Let’s do it,’” Malcolm said. “We got a bunch of the (Legion Family) members to come play actors. It was so successful last year.”

Quinn said calling he and his wife, Auxiliary Unit 71 member Anne Quinn, Halloween fanatics “might be an understatement. We’ve got bins and bins of Halloween decorations and all that other neat stuff. This is my wheelhouse, and it’s kind of sad when I have to tear it all down for Christmas.”

The haunted house also serves as a fundraiser, as well as an opportunity to collect food donations for the Jefferson County Community Ministries food bank. Attendees can either donate non-perishable foods or make a financial contribution either to the post or to the purchase of a wreath for Wreaths Across America.

Malcolm said one visitor to the haunted house last year really make an impact on him. “This lady comes in with three little kids, and she’s got two cans of corn. And she asked if that was an acceptable donation,” he said. “We said, ‘absolutely.’ And we went and bought the kids some pizza and sodas, and they had a great time. That’s why we do it.”

As part of its ongoing effort to attract families, Post 71 also has established a VR gaming night each week that is free to the post members and their children. In addition to gaming, ping pong, foosball and darts also are available; the area is set up as an under-21 venue where the participants can order food and pop while playing their games.

“It’s just one of the many programs that we offer,” Malcolm said. “We’re trying to change our image. We’re trying to become … a community establishment, not a stereotypical Legion post.”

Post 71’s Legion Family did the brunt of the work for the 2021 haunted house. Realizing that prepping and then running the haunted house was asking a lot of the post’s older members, Malcolm reached out to the JROTC program at the Jefferson High School, in which his sons have been involved or will be. “They were all over it,” he said. “They sent three kids on Day 1 to help us set it up. They’re sending between eight and 10 kids every day that we are open to work the donation table and greet people, to play all the actors in the haunted house, and to be our tour guides to run the groups through.”

Children are taken through the haunted house in escorted groups of three. “We don’t want them to fall or trip or get too scared. And if it’s a really little kid that can’t handle a haunted house, they can still get their candy and go play a game.”

For Quinn, being able to share a holiday experience so near and dear to him with younger members of the community and see it do so well makes the effort of putting the haunted house on worth it.

“We were trying to attract young people, and it seemed to work last year,” he said. “We did very well, and a lot of people seemed to gravitate to it.”

The haunted house opened last weekend and will open again from 3-9 p.m. Oct. 29 and 3-8 p.m. Oct. 30.