by Wyatt Waskowiak, reporter
OMAHA – The VIP Carwash on 120th and L St. decided to create a safe, family friendly Halloween activity that everyone can enjoy. The Haunted Carwash was designed to be a fascinating way to support their local community.
The proceeds from the Haunting will go to the Open Door Mission, and owners Michael Blatchford and Greg McCubbins were very excited to work with them.
McCubbins said, when referring to the Open Door Mission, “You know I recommended let’s partner up and see what we can do to help them feed more people this year and Mike’s 100 percent on board with it so.”
At 4:30 p.m. on the days they run the haunted carwash they close the doors to begin the spooky transformation. It’s then they bring out all different kinds of Halloween creatures including a giant clown that moves and talks. By 6pm they are ready to set up and start scaring people.
Some customers made sure to arrive early as the line can often weave all the way to Q street. On Friday, they had lines that took over 45 minutes to arrive at the carwash location. To help with the wait VIP sent out a couple of the costumed employees and volunteers to get the scaring going early.
Ariel Cunningham made sure to arrive early so her children Sadie and Drew could enjoy the festivities.
She said, “We heard about it through a news article on Facebook, and we thought it’d be a fun family event to come out and experience.”
A little extra treat for the children, is an individually wrapped goodie bag that has been sanitized and put together with only prepackaged items. They also made a point to not include any nuts in the bags so that many of the children can enjoy them.
With the pandemic having a major impact on everyone, this gave VIP carwash the motivation to create a unique, safe Halloween activity.
There is a lack of family things to do right now, when people aren’t out at the zoos and different things. McCubbins said there are a lot of people who are home, they’re worried about the virus, and so this gives them a safe place to come and do a great thing for the Open Door Mission as well. The haunted carwash will be back on the 28th until Halloween, and then it is expected to continue for years to come.
