Myrtleville-Mayfair Neighbourhood Association is, once again, teaming up with the Brant Historical Society to host the sixth annual Halloween Haunt at the Myrtleville House Museum on Saturday, October 24, 2026.
The free event, which runs from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., will offer a variety of spooktacular activities suited for both young and older children alike.
“Similar to previous years, we’ll have our live-action haunted historic house, which, how cool is it to be able to go through a historic house that’s all decorated and spooky, with live actors coming out to scare you?” said Harmony McKenzie, Chair of the local neighbourhood association. “We’ll have a scare zone, as well as a junior zone with crafts and games for those who may not be old enough, or are a little too scared, to go into the haunted house. That will be in the drive shed, so it’s a little bit warmer in there too.”
Other features include the illuminated pumpkin walk, Halloween-themed movies and inflatable characters, along with two new additions this year: a self-play area with yard games and a balloon twister. Treat bags of candy will also be handed out on a first-come, first-served basis.
With so much taking place on the grounds, McKenzie said it takes a team of volunteers to help bring the event to life.
“As a neighbourhood association, we do a lot of events, but I think this is one of the bigger ones because it actually includes a lot of participation from the community. We have about 40 volunteers that sign up to help us,” she said. “Some are high school students getting their volunteer hours, some are families that want to help out because it’s a great activity, and then there are new people in the neighbourhood that want to get involved as well. And they all help with everything from carving around 70 pumpkins a couple days before the event to decorating the grounds. That’s an all-day event because we’re getting the house decorated, the pumpkins laid out, and putting up all the inflatable characters, so it’s a lot of work.”
The Chair of the neighbourhood association added that as a volunteer-run organization that relies on donations, the event wouldn’t be possible without the generosity and support of the community.
“From the neighbourhood association perspective, our mandate is to be barrier-free and ensure that everybody can come and experience this. We had around 1,200 attendees last year and it’s not cheap to put on an event like this for that many people. We’ve recently started putting out calls to action, and people have already started donating things like candy to help us out,” said McKenzie. “We’ve got some great sponsors this year as well; Scotlynn is donating the pumpkins, we’ve got Zehrs on board helping to feed our volunteers, and Sunbelt Rentals are coming out with lights, gating and some other things we need too. We also have people donating money, and that really helps with offsetting some of the costs like gas for generators and whatnot. It really takes a lot of community participation to make this happen, so to be able to say that this is a free event is very meaningful for us.”
For more information about the event or how to get involved, the details can be found on the event page on Facebook.
“The event page is great because we have all the updated information up there, as well as any information regarding donations,” said McKenzie. “We would be happy and very grateful to accept any monetary or candy donations in advance to help make this event bigger and better for the community.”
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
