Post by JoannaL on Sept 27, 2019 15:06:24 GMT -5
Ghost Tours Return to Downtown Troy
TROY, Ohio – Ghost stories from the city of Troy’s 200-year history will come to life on Friday, Oct. 25, and Saturday, Oct. 26, as Ghost Tours of Troy returns for another year of frightening fun for charity.
“We’re just a two-day event, the weekend before Halloween,” tour chairperson Shawn Denoyer said. “It’s almost kind of like a huge play outdoors. We’re all pretty much in costume; there are costumed tour guides, we have hostesses who take the tours out, then throughout the tour, we have tour guides along the way, too, who will tell the stories. It’s a walking tour around downtown Troy, where we’re going to tell you the history and haunts of downtown. Some of the buildings, we’re actually going inside. We have someone to do our make-up. We try to wear more period wear, whatever the time frame that we’re talking about.”
Tours will begin at 7 p.m., Friday, Oct. 25, with a new group starting every half-hour until 9 p.m. On Saturday, Oct. 26, tours will begin at 6 p.m. and run every half-hour until 9 p.m. Tickets are $12 pre-sale or $15 the night of the tour. Tour groups usually consist of 15 to 20 people.
“You can buy tickets the days of the tours, too,” Denoyer added. “We usually open the table up an hour before the tours, if anyone wants to buy tickets before, but there’s a chance that certain tour times will be sold out.”
Pre-sale tickets are available online at www.ghosttoursoftroy.com and will also be sold at selected stores downtown. “We’ll be announcing those very soon, which shops are going to have tickets,” Denoyer continued. “They did that for us last year and it went over really well.”
Tours are open to guests of all ages, but Denoyer does suggest some caution if you’re planning on bringing small children: “I call the tour PG, because we are in costume, so it could scare small kids. Also, too, there’s a lot of walking. People have brought small children in strollers; that has worked. There’s a lot of walking. We try to accommodate what we can, but I do always let everybody know because we’re going to be walking all of downtown Troy.”
Tour highlights will include the Miami County Courthouse, the Elks Lodge (above) and a Victorian-style mansion that is rumored to be haunted by several different spirits. The tour also changes every year, as new stories and locations are constantly being added. “Each year, we change the places,” Denoyer explained. “If you take the tour one year, the next year it’s going to be a little different; we’re going to change it up a little bit. We always try to keep it fresh. “It started out extremely small. It started out as just a small Halloween event, and it has spread through the years.”
All the workers involved in hosting the tours are volunteers. “We’re all in it together,” Denoyer said. “Everybody has something to give, and everybody volunteers their time. We’re always accepting new volunteers. We start as early as July, getting ideas, and we work up to the time of the tour. We walk the tour route, and we try to keep the tour under an hour. By the time it’s time for the tour, we’re ready to roll.”
Almost all proceeds from the ghost tours go to local charities and nonprofit organizations. “Basically, what we do is most of the proceeds go to charitable organizations and non-profits,” Denoyer noted. “As a group, we make that decision together.” Partners in Hope, the Miami County Animal Shelter, Cat Advocates of Troy, the Mayflower Arts Center and the Troy Elks are just a few of the non-profit organizations that have received donations from Ghost Tours of Troy. “Last year, we donated to the family abuse shelter,” she recalled.
Source: Matt Clevenger, The Troy Daily News, September 27, 2019.