Along the dirt path marked with stones, several tombstones and graves hint at impending horror.
The path leads to a wooden structure that inspires the worst nightmares: clowns, evil doctors, zombies and creepy dolls.
There will be screams here soon, but those screams will be lost in the vast desert east of Sahuarita.
โWeโre going all out here,โ said Tonya Thomas, a member of the team responsible for creating the house of horror.
Six seniors from Andrada Polytechnic High School built this haunted house with the help of Stuart Douglass, a member of the schoolโs site council, as part of their senior exit project and volunteer hours required for graduation.
Douglass, who has built haunted houses before for Bullhead Cityโs parks and recreations department, recruited the students to put on the biggest, most horrifying haunted house for charity. Proceeds from the haunted house, which is set to open Oct. 29, will benefit the Greater Vail Community Resources food bank.
The price of admission is either $2 per person or two cans of food items.
The haunted house is on Douglassโ property between Sahuarita and Corona de Tucson. To get there, a little bit of on-dirt driving is required. All in all, there are about 2,700 square feet of horror, he said.
The students did everything from going out to businesses and soliciting donations to screwing in the bolts that hold up the structure.
Theyโve also designed the fliers, collected and decorated costumes and props and built the mounds of graves that lead to the haunted house.
The students secured more than $700 and construction material in donations from Home Depot, Loweโs of Sierra Vista, Twice as Nice, Savers and Fryโs grocery store.
On the day of its opening, the students, alongside their schoolโs student council members, will be the ones scaring visitors. Theyโve even got some special effects planned too, including strobe lighting and fog machines.
Douglass said he wanted to get seniors involved in the project so they could learn about leadership, volunteering and community outreach.
Vail district requires seniors to participate in internships and volunteering in order to graduate, said Ariel Schweitzer, a senior exit project coordinator and English teacher at Andrada. โWe want our students to be college and career ready,โ she said.
Kortney Watkins, Aubrie Nix and Thomas were working at the haunted house Wednesday after school.
Watkins and Nix took up drilling in some additional screws to some of the weaker panels, while Thomas organized props.
โIโve never done anything like this before,โ Watkins said. It was quite an experience to learn how to use the drill, handsaw and other tools.
The students and Douglass are expecting to have about 600 visitors to the haunted house.
โI really hope we get a lot of people,โ Thomas said. โWeโre doing this for charity so if a lot of people come, it can make a difference.โ
