What do medieval times, vampires and fractured fairy tales have in common?

They’re all part of the theme for this year’s Nightmare at Beaver Lake Park, which will run Oct. 24 to 31.

Put on by Rotary Club of Sammamish, Scare Productions and hundreds of community volunteers, last year’s event raised more than $100,000 and was attended by nearly 11,000 people.

“It’s a whole medieval theme this year: Vampires have taken over the king’s lands, and the king is fighting back,” said Dana Young, one of the event co-chairs. “We will be flinging what appears to be fireballs, a hag has put a curse on the town and at the end is the castle where the vampires have taken up residence.”

The event, which has been in preparation since February, includes a 3/4-mile haunted trail, with some indoor and some outdoor sets, and takes nearly 200 volunteers per night to pull off, said co-chair Dee Hoeke.

Rotary came up with the idea to put on a “haunt” five years ago, after hearing that community members wanted more activities for young people.

“We felt it was a worthy event in the community, and we wanted something to appeal to all ages and regardless of abilities,” Hoeke said, noting that the club committed to organizing it for three years even if as few as 50 kids showed up. The first night the haunt opened, 600 people attended. “We’ve gotten so much positive feedback from the community.”

Hoeke recommends that people who would like to be able to have a truly haunted experience think about coming on a night other than a Friday or Saturday, which tend to be very crowded.

Asked about her favorite part, she said she loves to watch teenage boys hiding behind their girlfriends

“They like to come in all rough and tough, and they end up hiding behind their girlfriends,” Hoeke laughed.

A majority of the volunteers who make the event possible are teenagers, such as 18-year-old Hannah Houk, who started volunteering when she was 15 to fulfill a community service requirement.

“I thought it was the coolest thing in the world to do something like this, have so much fun doing it and all at the same time earn community service hours,” said Houk, who graduated from Eastlake High School earlier this year.

Volunteers have been working on the production of sets and other aspects since early this year, with much of the work going on at a city space referred to as “the farm” in northern Sammamish. Over the past week, volunteers have been moving all of the sets to the park and putting them in place, explained Rotary press secretary Anita Boser. Another big project is the creation of short films, written and shot in a way that supports the theme of the year. Boser writes the scripts and other volunteers pitch in to act, videotape and edit the films, which are then played to entertain guests while they wait in line.

Anyone who is still interested in volunteering is welcome to attend an orientation from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 18 at Beaver Lake Lodge.

Young, who also volunteers as an actor, said her favorite part, by far, is scaring people.

“That first person of the year that I get to scream and run away from me? That makes it all worth it,” she said. “If I can make them scream and then laugh, I know they’ve enjoyed themselves.”

To see some sneak preview photos, see page 11 of the Sammamish Reporter, or go online to www.sammamish-reporter.com and click on “photo galleries.”