By Matthew Liebenberg
A haunted town experience near Swift Current is celebrating a decade of frightening people while raising funds for various non-profit and community organizations.
The Haunted Town of Lil-Sur-Mer kicked off its 10th year of giving back to the community with a ribbon cutting by Swift Current Mayor Al Bridal, Oct. 10.
“I want to applaud this group for their incredible contributions over the years,” Bridal said during his remarks. “Nearly $150,000 for great causes and projects across our communities. I think that’s what sets this group apart so frightfully unique. Your generosity is pretty warm-hearted for a group of people whose main goal is to scare us into blood curdling screams.”
He expressed appreciation towards everyone who makes this event happen year after year.
“I know a lot of preparation and planning and countless volunteer hours makes these experiences come to light for your visitors,” he said. “Congratulations on this milestone.”
Bridal joined other visitors after the ribbon cutting to experience the scary thrills of Haunted Town during a combined ride and walk tour through the town with stops at themed houses.
“It was very entertaining,” he said afterwards. “I really liked the clown one, the very last one we went to. I thought it was great. There’s lots of very interesting things and very much worth the price of admission. I can see why lots of people enjoy it. They put in a tremendous amount of effort and everybody stays in character. They stay very creepy and scary.”
The Haunted Town of Lil-Sur-Mer is located south of Swift Current at Springfeld. It is used as a paintball field at other times during the year, but transforms into a fun and scary experience over several weekends in the run-up to Halloween.
The opening night was a nearly sold-out success that raised over $5,000. The other tour dates for the 10th anniversary season were scheduled for Oct. 16, 17, 23, 24 and 30.
Haunted Town co-founder Andy Keys was dressed as Captain Grimm, the commander of the pirate ship Douganna on the edge of the town.
“I never in my wildest dream thought we’d be here for 10 years,” he said about the success of the event.
It all began after Rene Panasiuk, the other co-founder of the event, suggested the idea of a haunted town to Keys.
“We already had the town out there with the paintball and I went ‘Hell, yeah!’” Keys recalled. “So we went for a walk around and we decided that’s what we were going to do.”
The first year’s event only took place on a single weekend and raised just $1,562. This was partly due to poor weather that forced them to cancel a couple of rides, but Keys already got a sense about the potential for the event to grow.
“We could see vehicle after vehicle coming in here,” he said. “The snow was just coming in sideways and people were going ‘Where are you? What’s happening?’ So with that we just had to say there’s definitely something in this. We carried on and it got bigger and better from there.”
They have increased the funds raised each year and in 2025 a record amount of $30,175 was collected.
It takes a lot of helping hands to make the event a success and a volunteer group of over 50 people were involved last year. He appreciates the support of all the volunteers, who are referred to as scarers and members of the scream team.
Keys said everyone involved with the Haunted Town of Lil-Sur-Mer are proud to be giving back to the community through the funds raised each year.
“All of our scarers say the same thing,” he noted. “When you’re giving away that much money, it gives you that warm fuzzy feeling. It makes you feel very happy, very proud.”
