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How One Little Girl Made Sure a Local Haunted House Remained Open How a Little Girl Made Sure a Local Haunted House Stayed Open

Liverpool girl made sure her favorite scare house stayed open after a fire.

By Michael Mulford

ANCHOR: IT WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT TO SAY THE RESIDENTS OF THIS LIVERPOOL HOME LOVE HALLOWEEN. FOR 15 YEARS, THE PROPERTY HAS TRANSFORMED INTO A BONE-CHILLING HAUNTED HOUSE. NOT ONLY DO HUNDREDS COME FOR THE SPECTACLE– BUT THEY DON’T HAVE TO PAY A DOLLAR TO GET IN… NOT A SINGLE CENT. DIANA SLEIERTIN (SLY-er-tin) IS THE DAUGHTER-IN-LAW OF THE HOMEOWNERS, THE DOMBROSKIS. DIANA SAYS IT’S NOT ABOUT THE MONEY– BUT SOMETHING EVEN MORE REWARDING.

Diana: “As an interest in having the neighbors be able to have fun and the community to be able to have fun, they did not want anything to inhibit any family from being able to come here and enjoy it.”

ANCHOR: SHE SAYS NEARLY TWO-THOUSAND ARE EXPECTED AT THE HAUNTED HOUSE THIS YEAR– READY TO BE SCARED OUT OF THEIR SHOES. BUT LIKE MANY HALLOWEEN TALES, THERE’S A DARKER SIDE TO THIS STORY.

ANCHOR: “Unfortunately, tragedy struck four years ago. An electrical fire broke out one night- days before Halloween, causing nearly all of the props, including most of the backyard, to be destroyed.”

Diana: “It was Saturday night of opening weekend. We were on track for one of our biggest years ever. The building went up very quickly. We were very, very fortunate. Not only did we get all of my reptiles out of the building, we got all of the people out of the building. We got all of the people off of our property. It leveled everything.”

ANCHOR: ALTHOUGH ALL HOPE SEEMED LOST– LOVE WAS ABLE TO CONQUER ALL, AND DIANA AND THE FAMILY KNEW THE HAUNTED HOUSE HAD TO RETURN.

Diana: “To have these five little kids that come over every day and say ‘can we help set up?’ To have these teenagers who would rather be here helping us than possibly out on the streets doing something they really ought not to be doing– to have a little boy who came from Baldwinsville who has been coming for three years to say that one of our teenage haunters is his idol and he wants to do this– that’s what I get out of it.”

ANCHOR: THE YEAR AFTER THE FIRE- MORE TRAGEDY- AS DIANA LOST HER BELOVED HUSBAND, THE ONE WHO GOT HER SO INVESTED INTO ALL OF THIS. BUT SHE NEVER STOPPED– ALL THE DECORATING, BUILDING AND CRAFTING. THE SHOW HAD TO GO ON AND STILL THERE IS NO END IN SIGHT. SO WHY WOULD SHE CONTINUE TO SPEND ALL THIS TIME FOR THESE MERE FIVE DAYS OUT OF THE YEAR? BECAUSE THE WOMAN DRESSED IN BLACK– POSSESSES A HEART OF GOLD.

Diana: “Grief is an interesting thing. I do this out of my love for my husband and out of my love for my in-laws. I don’t think to myself ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ I do think he should be here with us.”

ANCHOR: SO AS YOUR EYES FILL WITH FEAR AND EXCITEMENT WHILE YOU WALK THE HARROWING GROUNDS OF RAVEN HAVEN, HER SOUL FILLS WITH HAPPINESS. BECAUSE IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT A HOLIDAY OR SHOVELING AS MUCH CANDY AS YOU CAN EAT– IT’S ABOUT FAMILY AND COMMUNITY. THIS IS MIKE MULFORD, REPORTING FOR N-C-C NEWS.

By Mike Mulford LIVERPOOL, N.Y. (NCC News) — Since 2003, Raven Haven haunted house has drawn hundreds of visitors to its spooky grounds. Each year, the home is transformed over two-plus months to make sure every detail and prop is just right.

This coming Halloween, about 2,000 are expected at the haunted house, ready to be spooked. But what is now present on the property was not the case four years ago. . .

Nearly two weeks before Halloween in 2014, an electrical fire began at Raven Haven. Nearly all of the props and decorations and displays turned to ash. The community and owners were heartbroken. It seemed that it was time for Raven Haven to rest in peace.

But one little girl, a neighbor named Lola, changed all that. What she did next may have you in tears– it certainly did for one owner of Raven Haven.

Lola had been saving up for a family trip to Disneyworld. When the fire destroyed Raven Haven, she decided to walk down the street to the home of Katy and Alan Dombroski, the owners of Raven Haven. Alan opened the door to find Lola, about age eight at the time, holding her green piggy bank out in her little outstretched arms. It was her saved money for her family trip.

“My father-in-law was ready to call it quits,” said Diana Sleiertin, daughter-in-law of the Dombroskis. “The thing that probably kept everything going was the little neighbor girl that brought over her piggy bank.”

The money itself was not enough to rebuild and replace all that had been lost, but it was more than enough for Diana and the Dombroskis to see that the community could not be without their haunted house. It had to rise from the grave.

“When this little girl came and said, ‘Please don’t. I look for you every year,’ that’s what kept this going,” she added.

Since then, Lola has been a frequent visitor at Raven Haven and even judges a t-shirt design contest held at Raven Haven. She is one of many local children and teenagers that comes to assist with all of the setup and decorating.

After its opening weekend on October 19th and 20th, Raven Haven will be open October 26th, 27th and Halloween night, from 7pm until the line is gone into the night.

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