Goblins and good will
Ghouls and ghosts are in no short supply at the Mike Kaiser Poor Farm Haunted Corn Maze, and surprisingly they’re up to a great deal of good.
The maze held two cancer benefit nights this month to raise money for Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center research for multiple melanomas. Mike Kaiser, the owner of the maze, lost his father to multiple melanoma three years ago and has been hosting cancer nights ever since.
In addition to raising money for cancer research, they also collect food items to donate to the Inner Church Food Pantry in Johnson County. They will discount the price of admission by 50 cents for every food item brought in up to two dollars.
Kaiser said his daughter inspired him to start the maze nine years ago when she took him through one.
"She won’t come through mine now," Kaiser said, implying that it is too scary for her.
The maze is spread out over six acres of land and is cut into a different design. This year’s design is a wolf’s head, the insignia of the main fearsome beast of the maze this year.
Thomas Sizemore, a member of the maze’s scare crew, video tapes some areas of the maze and uploads them to his YouTube account which can be found at Youtube.com/redwing120.
Some things to look forward to in the maze include a black out room, trailer that is home to some frightening folks, ghastly monsters wielding chain saws and a tunnel.
"We have a wonderful tunnel you walk through, and we got a lot of compliments about that," said Rebecca Sizemore, another member of the scare crew.
"We basically don’t hurt anybody, but we try and scare them the best we can," Kaiser said.
There are fright-free, kid-friendly hours from 7 p.m. until dusk. After that the maze is open until 11:30 p.m.
Steve Crim, an annual visitor of the maze, has been bringing his two grandsons Cameron and Kyle for the past three years.
"The kids inside are great, they know where the limit is … The chain saw guys come out and say, ‘You know, it’s OK little guy; it’s OK.’"
