We raised over $17K in October!

Talk about SPOOKTACULAR!!!

When I originally decided to set $15,000 as our October fundraising goal, I couldn't even say it out loud because I was nervous it was too lofty. And yet, here we are! Wow wow WOW!

I cannot thank all of you enough for making this Halloween season our most successful one yet. I am SO excited to share all the results and stats with you, so let's get to it!!

Upgrades to Damian's Not-So-Haunted House

Oh my goodness, we almost looked like a full-blown theme park this year! My goal was to up the production value of the front facade and create a real "arrival moment" and I am so happy with how it turned out!

Our newly fiberglassed and painted train (evolved from our 4th of July parade float) was stationed front and center and I put little "baby ghosts" all over it to stay on theme. I flanked the train with some fun Haunted Mansion-esque topiaries and pumpkins and the whole thing really helped the front yard feel full and welcoming.

The train was a hit with the kids, even more so than I expected! There is just something magical about trains, they are such a crowd pleaser. It was so fun to see all the kids (especially toddler-aged boys) get so excited about it!

I didn't anticipate just how many people would want to get their picture with the train - I've been keeping a list of things I need to add for next year's edition of the Not-So-Haunted House, and getting some more lights to make our train photo-ready late into the night is at the top of the list!

The other addition to the front yard was adding some fun lampposts to either side of our Pumpkin Mickey photo op, which once again was the biggest hit! It made me especially happy to hear people say they needed a photo of their child with it because they got one with it last year and it's become a tradition. The biggest compliment!

Speaking of photo ops, "Pluto's Pumpkin Patch" at the exit of the walkthrough finally got the big upgrade I've been wanting to give it since the beginning and it made the biggest difference!

This year I built shelves and filled them with pumpkins and then strung orange lights and colorful pennants - it's hard to imagine it any other way now, right?? I've seen a few of the pictures that families took here and they all turned out great! Exactly how I hoped this area would become!

My friend and fabulous photographer extraordinaire took photos of Damian & I in our costumes and I think the ones in Pluto's Pumpkin Patch came out so darling (even if Damian kept trying to sleep - he was just the snuggliest little ghost)!

As always, I was overly optimistic with how much I wanted to add this year to the walkthrough, but I was excited that on top of everything we added outside, I was also able to create a new character moment inside:

Not only does our front hallway finally have a second wall, but the wall's stripes twist and bend to our organ's music - and we now can see who is playing it! In previous years, we could only guess at the ghost who was playing the music, but now we can see that it's Ghost Goofy!

This animation was much more simple to make than last year's Mickey Ghost because I just needed to make Goofy's shadow. I separated his silhouette into jointed pieces and then animated him like a puppet (rather than drawing a new picture for each individual video frame) - I was very happy with how it turned out!

By the way, you can see our Goofy ghost in action - and everything else - in the brand-new walkthrough video I just posted on YouTube!

The Turnout

We ran Damian's Not-So-Haunted House for 9 nights in October, from 5-8pm each night. I never quite know what to expect for the turnout, but since this is our 3rd year doing it and I've spent every night after we've closed to record our attendance, our sales and donations, and any other notes, I'm starting to get a little more savvy with what we need to put on a good show and how the attendance rises and falls throughout the week.

I was cautiously optimistic that we would get a little better of a turnout this year, but WOW, I was absolutely blown away! Especially since I personally didn't get as much advertising out as I had wanted to!

The first year we put on this event we had a total of 1,073 people show up. Last year, we had 1,437 guests.

This year, over a 9-night run, we had 1,661 guests come through our Not-So-Haunted House! Woohoo!!!

I asked most groups how they found out about our event and for the most part they all heard fairly equally from either (1) local online influencers or news outlets who post about upcoming local events, (2) the SoCal Haunt List, a comprehensive database of big Halloween displays in Southern California, and (3) by word of mouth from friends and family. So to all of you who have shared any of our posts about the event, THANK YOU for helping us make it a success!!!

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How Much We Raised

As always, we did not charge for admission for the walkthrough itself. Some have suggested I should, but because I designed this especially for young families, I would hate for any family to feel hesitant about coming because of a paywall or have a couple family members not join because they don't want to pay. The experience is so much more memorable with the whole family there, and many young children want to go through it again and again! I want people to have nothing but a positive experience here.

Besides, everyone has been INCREDIBLY generous anyway. Over and over, people would choose a few items from the bake sale and then donate even more on top of their purchase! Our bake sale sold out, or very close to it, every single night.

Thanks to the selflessness of many friends & local bakers, we stocked our sale with the most amazing goods, from breads to cake pops, and even copies of the cutest new Halloween children's book, Scared of a Boo!, that a friend recently published!

Absolutely everything sold - and we even had repeat customers who came back just to buy more of a specific delicious treat! I'm telling you, my friends are so talented!!

And now, here are all the numbers, in all their glory:

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

I could talk about what was amazing about each one of these nights. Um, hello, night 5 we welcomed 342 people over (the most we've ever had)!!!! And OH my goodness, that first Saturday we raised nearly $3000 in a single night???

Keep in mind this is the money raised only on the nights we were doing Damian's Not-So-Haunted House! In the whole month of October we raised a total of (ready for this??)

$17,915.35

I have been in SHOCK all weekend!! Nearly $18 grand in a single month. And we hit a mini milestone that I previously hoped we would hit by New Years' Day:

We have now raised over $1,150,000 to develop lifesaving treatment for Damian and all young children fighting ASMD.

Thank you thank you thank you.

What a blessing it is that through this long and arduous journey I get to meet so many wonderful people. So many people at this event sought me out to ask about Damian and hear (genuinely) how he was doing. A few nights Damian was outside with us "helping" man the bake sale (which he loved! He loves the lights and being around kids) and everyone was so excited to meet Damian in person. I heard parents talk to their kids and so kindly explain to them why Damian needed help.

So many people told me how they were praying for Damian and our family. A handful of children came up to me (on multiple nights) and handed me dollar bills with big proud smiles beaming on their faces (their parents explained it was their allowance money or other money they'd saved up that they wanted to give to Damian). Oh my heart.

What amazing parents. What incredible kids. I'd take this journey away from me in a second if I could - and it's simultaneously such an honor to see all the good there is in people. Your goodness means the world to me. Thank you so much.

I always hope these fundraisers that I make have a kind of symbiotic effect where there is a true mutual benefit. It is so fulfilling to watch families light up and enjoy an experience together. I especially loved watching a child go from being really nervous about going through to then wanting to go again and again. One lady told me she got chills in the Not-So-Haunted House because it felt like Disneyland - and another who said she teared up because she recognized the heart that went in to making every detail (ok, truly the biggest compliments!!!).

We have been SO blessed by the generosity of others. SO BLESSED. I just really hope in return that everyone that chooses to become a part of our journey is better off because of it. And that goes for me too.

I can't wait to share what's coming next for our campaign. It's going to be magical <3

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