OUR VIEW: Don’t let the screams go silent at Nate Jasper’s
Published: November 5, 2009
» We’re sad to see his Haunted Woods come to an end. But maybe the Halloween tradition can live on in a new incarnation.
For 20 years Culpeper residents always knew where to get a good scream on Halloween — why, Nate Jasper’s Haunted Woods, of course.
Now, those screams have been silenced. After years of hard work, Jasper has decided it’s too much. He’s hanging up his scary masks for good.
We respect his decision because we can only imagine how much busy work must go into pulling off his elaborate setup, but we wonder: Can the magic continue?
Maybe some community organizations could step up to rally around Jasper’s idea. Think about how great a fundraising effort it would be for a lot of charitable causes willing to lend a hand. Imagine one of the local service organizations selling refreshments to those who waited in line. What if a $5 admission charge went to help a worthwhile cause like local fire and rescue?
Having enough security was a concern in recent years, but what if the high school JROTC volunteered to assist the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Office in patrolling? It could even earn those students some community service and keep alive (no pun intended) an iconic event.
Sadly, we may never know if such measures will do any good because, to our knowledge, there are no such plans on the horizon. At any rate, the community should let Jasper know how much he and his annual tradition meant.
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It’s not every day you turn on Fox 5 in the morning and see three familiar bright-eyed faces. But there were Rixeyville’s own Shields Brothers Oct. 16 jamming out. The three brothers won the “Fox Rocks” contest and performed an original song on the broadcast. Congrats go out to Rory, Tristan and Devin.
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Three friends from Bealeton got some TV time recently as well. Dana McAnallen, Garyln Bell and Brittany Gwathmey were featured on “America’s Funniest Home Videos” Oct. 11. The trio won $10,000 for their video of Dana being pranked by her friends. Congratulations, and funny stuff.
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Reader Reactions
We took our granddaughter a couple of years ago. They scared her so bad we have never been able to get her to go back!
You know, we never seemed to be able to make it out to the Haunted Woods over the years. Something always came up, even though we always talked about how we wanted to go. This year we made a point to get there. We had heard so much about it, we thought it couldn’t possibly live up to what we’d built it to be in our minds. Boy were we wrong! We had an absolute blast! I never new I could scream ‘like a girl’. Ok, I am girl, but I’ve never screamed like that in my life! My husband got a big kick out of watching us girls scream. I was too busy dodging monsters to see if he was scared. But we all came out with smiles on our faces. And to think this was free. Nate - you are THE MAN!! I know you had lots of help - but you are the man! I’m so glad we were able to make it this year. Thank you Nate Jasper, and thank you to all the volunteers who helped to make it possible.
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