A local man will be putting a longtime Halloween tradition to rest this year.
Yvon Cleroux runs a haunted house annually out of his home on 49th street, and collects donations which he gives to charity. Cleroux says he started the tradition to build up his neighbourhood.
“It started eleven years ago because we had a bad house down the street,” Cleroux said. “It was a drug house which got torn down. I wanted to welcome the children back into the community, [and] make sure that there was a safe place to come for Halloween.
“We’ve had a good response. The first year there was [ around] 500 children, then it went up to about 1,000, and now it’s up to over 2,000 children.”
Cleroux says that he is ending the tradition because he’s getting too old to do it by himself, but that if someone is willing to take over the project, he would be happy to help.
“If somebody wants to take over my legacy, they’re welcome to it, but I am done for Halloween,” he said. “I’ve had some people from Maidstone that wanted to take it over and bring it to Maidstone, and a lot of people want to buy my props, and I just don’t know what to do about that… I would like to keep it in Lloyd. If somebody wants to use my yard, they’re welcome to do it, I’ll still use my props and help them out a little bit, but I cannot do it by myself anymore.”
As for this year, Cleroux says he plans to go out with a bang, with decorations including a dragon fighting a 10-foot cat, fog machines in his backyard, and a three-headed wolf.
All donations to this year’s haunted house will be donated to WPD Ambulance.