The annual Haunted Hayride two-night event sponsored by the City of Riverbank’s Parks and Recreation Department was held only one night this year due to stormy weather. The rain and wind may have dampened the event on Friday night, Oct. 28, however; Saturday night guests on Oct. 29 were lined up and ready to tour the 13 scare sites at Jacob Myers Park.

The hayride started at 7 p.m. and wrapped up around 10:45 p.m. with scare sites filled with creativity and scariness.

The Parks and Rec department awarded prizes to the best sites and coming in first place with a $100 prize was the Clowns by Tony Perez and Trisha Johnson and family. The Orphanage for Demented Children scare site by Rafael Pulido took second place with a prize of $75 and Boy Scout Troop 1100 received $50 with third place for their Zombie Camp.

“We would also like to thank Riverbank High Drama students and all the other volunteers that made the Hayride a huge success. Also to all city staff that made the event scary,” stated Kerrie Webb, Parks and Recreation Supervisor. “The clown site is always scary. For some reason people do not like clowns.”

The organizers did allow the use of clowns this year, even though there had been somewhat of a hysteria surrounding so-called ‘creepy clown’ sightings throughout the country in the weeks leading up to Halloween.

“The orphanage for demented children had great effects,” added Webb of the second place honorees. “The little children were very creepy looking.”

According to Webb there were over 675 people that attended the event and some attendees that waited in line for up to two hours.

“The graveyard is always a good site,” Webb noted. “They even had a large hole where victims would lay during the event. The Blair Witch site had a great eerie effect with their lighting.”

With approximately 50 volunteers on hand to man the variety of sites along with the Riverbank High School drama students and volunteer guides, they all assisted in making the one night event a success.