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Spooky Maple Ridge home provides scares for charity

John McKweon has been collecting food bank donations at his scary home for years

There are Halloween decorations, and then there are Halloween extravaganzas like John McKweon’s Maple Ridge home.

“My father always told me that if you grow up, you become old, and this stuff helps keep me young,” said McKweon.

McKweon has been dressing up his home from top to bottom with Halloween decorations for a long time, which he says he’s glad to do as someone who’s been obsessed with Halloween since childhood.

READ MORE: Skeletons, ghosts, and nightmarish fiends invade Maple Ridge house for Halloween

But there’s an even bigger reason why he goes through all of this effort each year. At the front of his very spooky yard is a big blue bin with a sign encouraging spectators to drop off some donations for the Friends in Need food bank.

Last year, McKweon said he was able to collect $400 cash and more than 300 lbs of food donations for the food bank, and is hoping for more this year.

“I doubled my Halloween collection, so hopefully I can double the donations,” he said.

The response from the public has already been quite good, according to McKweon. After putting signs up on each end of his street and posting about the display to Facebook Marketplace, he said many people have stopped by, including a total of more than 25 people the previous Saturday.

New to his collection this year is a giant levitating inflatable witch and two projection screens featuring various animated scenes.

But McKweon says the really impressive items are located in his work trailer, which he was converted into a decoration display for the first time.

Inside the trailer is a lifelike statue of a demon nun from The Nun, the Annabelle doll from the film of the same name, and a creepy clown down on a rocking chair, amongst other small and scary decor.

With help from his 13-year-old daughter and his longtime friend Darrin Lambert, McKweon has been able to create a display that he says he is incredibly proud of.

McKweon’s haunted house can be found at 20510 124A Ave., Maple Ridge.

RELATED: Trevor and the giant pumpkin raise money for charity in Maple Ridge


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Brandon Tucker

About the Author: Brandon Tucker

I have been a journalist since 2013, with much of my career spent covering sports and entertainment stories in Alberta.
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