BONNERS FERRY — Second Chance Animal Adoption will host their third annual haunted house fundraiser starting this weekend at their Lincoln Street thrift store and shelter location in Bonners Ferry.

“All admission is by donation,” says Second Chance Thrift Store administrator and board member Mila Cousins.

Second Chance is a non-profit organization devoted to caring for homeless animals in the Bonners Ferry and Boundary County area.

All the proceeds from their haunted house, like those from the Second Chance Thrift Store, will be used to support the animal shelter.

This year, volunteers from a local non-denominational youth group headed by Julie Krezman and Ron Self, along with Pastor Brent Dehlbom and his wife Kim from the Bonners Ferry United Methodist Church will be donating their time to help with the fundraiser.

The youth and other volunteers showed up Oct. 15 to help decorate for the haunted house, arranging corn stalks donated by Linda Erickson and stacking straw bales donated by Mary Kimball at Moose Valley, Jim and Deborah Dahlberg and Mike and Kathy Riebli to create an outdoor maze.

The kids had fun while they worked, laughing and joking and looking forward to scaring their friends when the haunted house opens.

“I want you to know what it is you’re really doing,” Cousins told the volunteers after they finished tarping off the partially-completed maze to protect the straw from the rain. “We have sponsors that help out the animal shelter so we can do this. Everything is by donation, even the thrift store is run by volunteers. All that money goes to feeding and taking care of the animals, and paying for things like the vet bills.”

Even the straw bales would be reused, Cousins said, as bedding for the animal shelter’s residents.

The haunted house will have multiple sections, one for younger kids with games and a storyteller and another side with the haunted house for the older ones. Mila’s husband Larry has helped with haunted house every year as the Marshal of Deadwood (it even says so on his badge).

“It’s small scale, but we have a lot of fun scaring kids,” Larry says. “It’s ghoulish fun.”

The haunted house section will feature a haunted mansion, complete with mad scientist and werewolf, that spits victims out into a creepy maze. Surprises wait in the darkness for those brave enough to tackle the maze. Outside, everyone must pass through the graveyard to escape, but beware of zombies...

“You can never have too many zombies,” Mila says, with a grin.

The haunted house will run from 6 to 8:30 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 24 and Saturday, Oct. 25, and the same hours on Halloween. Call 267-2815 for more information.