JOHNSON CREEK, Wi. — Shawn Richardt is just 15 years old, and he turned his now-vacant elementary school into the TNT Terror Haunted House, with all the proceeds going to charity.
For Richardt, the journey began in his family’s garage.
“We decided to start a haunted house just for a Halloween party,” Richardt said. “I think I just grew up with scary things around me that, like with my parents always buying new props and trying to scare me, and then I just found a love for trying to scare people.”
Moving from your garage to taking over the vacant elementary school that you went to is a leap. Richardt started with the blueprints of the school and divided the building into different fear zones, using nearly the entire building.
“The most fun part is trying to figure out what are common fears for people, and like the top of the list is clowns, you know a lot of people are afraid of that. Richardt said. “It’s trying to find the fears that some people didn’t even know they had.”
They’re getting hundreds of guests from around the region each night. That’s a lot of money. But not for him.
“The money is going to be going to, for one, the Johnson Creek School District and then we have the Johnson Creek Education Foundation, and then our Johnson Creek Historical Society.”
And his spooking career is just getting started.
“I feel like I want to keep trying to go towards this, we might have to move back into the garage and then work for another haunted house, and after that try to kick off my own business.”
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