SUMTER, S.C. — The Terror Trail at 2nd Mill Pond in Sumter donates 100% of its proceeds to local nonprofits and groups.
"It’s just naturally that dark and creepy in there," trail coordinator Brian Davis said. "The Terror Trail started as really just 300 yards long and had eight scares on it the first year. We are now over a mile long and over 25 scares."
Davis spends every fall perfecting the mile-long haunted trail in time for his favorite holiday: Halloween.
"It’s just the holiday that I really gravitated to," Davis explained. "When I was in the military I was always deployed away from family during Thanksgiving and Christmas and everything else, so Halloween was just something to really grab hold of and have a good time."
He has that good time by scaring people who come out to the trail each night. The tickets are $15 and 100% of the proceeds go to local groups and nonprofits. Last year, Davis said he raised over $16,000. This year, he's hoping to collect $20,000.
"Elks share, Elks care. That’s our motto," Harold Butler said.
Butler runs the Sumter Elk Lodge, a nonprofit that supports community members through scholarships, providing respite care for Alzheimer's patients and helping veterans.
"All of the money that’s raised as far as what the Elks get out of the share of it goes to our local community," Butler explained about the over $3 million the group has raised in the 150 it's been in Sumter.
An Eagle Scout himself, Davis also donates proceeds to the local Boy Scout Troop 342. Scoutmaster Neil Oakden says scouts even come out on the trail to dress up and scare visitors. Some of the money goes into their individual troop accounts to pay for camping and uniform expenses.
"But at the same time it definitely lets them feel like they’re contributing to the community," Oakden shared. "Sumter’s not a huge town, you know, it’s a smaller to medium-sized town and it’s nice to have things like this to do in the local community so you don’t have to go to Columbia or you don’t have to go over to Myrtle Beach or you don't have to go down to Charleston. So having events like this that they can directly contribute to and be a part of I think is huge for them."
The trail is open tonight through Monday starting at 7:30. It runs until the last person leaves or "dies off" as Davis says.