Tennis courts double as a dungeon in Dormont
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The last haunted house Mary Pitcher visited was the iconic Noah's Ark at Kennywood Park when she was 3 years old.
"I was crying and screaming so much they had to take me out the emergency exit," the Scott woman recalled of her time at the legendary amusement park in West Mifflin.
Friend Danielle Graham is just as faint-hearted when it comes to creepy goings-on.
"I hate haunted houses, but I love the cause. So I'll suck it up and do what I have to do," said Ms. Graham, of South Side.
The women used their imaginations and skills to put together the first Dormont Dungeon fundraiser on an eerily transformed tennis court near Dormont Pool on Banksville Road.
It is being held from 7 to 11 p.m. though Saturday, rain or shine. The cost is $5, with all proceeds to go to building the Pitcher Park Memorial Skatepark in honor of Mrs. Pitcher's two late sons, Stephen, 19, and Vincent, 21, who drowned during a family camping trip to Allegheny National Forest in 2008.
The park is slated to be built on the tennis courts site.
Mrs. Pitcher has five years to raise $500,000 through fundraisers, donations and grants for the project to become a reality. The five-year window is in accordance with Dormont code.
She and her supporters are in the process of applying for nonprofit status. They are paying to rent the courts for the fundraiser, said Dormont council President Kim Lusardi.
The younger Pitcher brothers grew up in Dormont and graduated from Keystone Oaks High School.
"I think they would have loved it," said Mrs. Pitcher of the fright-themed fundraiser.
"All my boys decorated our front yard. They grabbed stuff from around the house and made it spooky," she said.
Her other sons, Jonathan, 28, and Brady, 26, designed the dungeon attraction, which included lining the courts with black plastic to partition eight rooms, such as a clown room with evil clowns; a baby zombie room; and a room containing a coffin donated by Laughlin Funeral Home.
Ms. Graham, dressed up as a gypsy, acts as storyteller with a script she wrote "to enhance the scare factor."
Doughnuts, hot chocolate and coffee, are available for purchase.
One visitor the dungeon can count on is Ms. Lusardi.
"I have a 13-year-old who wants to go," she said.
"It's a neat idea, and I'm anxious to see how they incorporate this into the tennis courts and make a haunted house," she said.
First Published October 28, 2010 6:22 am
