New Jersey Family Uses Halloween To Help Support A Good Cause
PITMAN, NJ (CBS) -- Maybe you've been to a neighborhood haunted house before, but you've probably never seen something like Monster Martin's House of Terror in Pitman, New Jersey.
Over the last 16 years it's gotten bigger and scarier to the point where the labyrinth, with a penitentiary theme this year, covers firefighter Jon Martin's his whole yard.
"It started simply with a porch fog machine, a coffin and it was just something quick to scare the kids," says Martin.
A small army of volunteers spend more than 2 months constructing the haunted house each fall.
Then in the nights leading up to Halloween they spend several hours each evening providing the spooks to hundreds of visitors.
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It's all about suspense, a creep storyline and the cost to get into Monster Martin's is can goods or donating at least 2 dollars to the Pitman Food Pantry.
The pantry at Pitman Baptist Church is a collaboration of 5 local churches and provides weekly assistance to more than a hundred families.
Last year Monster Martin's donated $1,200 and stocked the pantry shelves with more than 2,440 cans of food they collected.
"They all come, they unload, they check dates, they're just wonderful," says pantry volunteer Susan Burkhard.
Martin wants people to be afraid—just not of hunger.
"I never thought it'd grow this size but now it's a community event," says Martin.
For more information visit you can visit Monster Martin's House of Terror Facebook page and the Pittman Food Pantry website.