PARK CITY — The Mentz Hotel may not look very scary in the daylight, but at night the old Victorian hotel on Old Dixie Highway comes alive with goblins and ghouls lurking in corners waiting to scare those who dare to enter.

Nathan Monroe, a Park City resident, and his friends transformed the hotel into a haunted house and plan to donate proceeds from the event to local charities.

“We took a $900 budget and went out and scraped up as much money as we could in a week’s time,” he said.

The haunted house features 13 rooms of utter fright, complete with chainsaw sounds, monsters and homicidal maniacs.

Doors open at dark and remain open until no one is left waiting to be scared. Admission is $7 per person.

On Oct. 16 there were 102 people who came for a truly hair raising experience. The following night 170 people showed up to witness a similar experience.

The haunted house is being hosted by a group of people who want to have fun at Halloween and at the same time raise money for charity. Everyone who has pitched in to help with the haunted house is a volunteer. There are volunteers associated with the Park City Volunteer Fire Department, others with the Lee E. Poynter Masonic Lodge, the Park City Lions Club and local businesses.

“People ask me who is putting this on. It’s just kind of a combined effort,” Monroe said. “It’s not really me putting it on. I’m just kind of organizing it. It’s not the fire department alone and it’s not the masonic lodge alone. It’s really been somewhat of a community effort. There’s been about 30 people who have volunteered a lot of their time and some more than others.”

Among those helping Monroe with the haunted house are Jason and Patricia Beauchamp. The couple own Back Road Garage in Park City and agreed to volunteer because they wanted to do something for local charities, they said.

One local charity that will benefit from the good samaritans’ efforts is the Christmas for Kids Program at Park City Elementary.

“The main reason is to help kids out at Christmas,” said Patricia Beauchamp. “I don’t think any child should be without Christmas.”

Working with the haunted house, she said, has been fun.

“I’ve had a ball,” she said. “I’ve been through several (haunted houses), but this is the first time I’ve been in on the spooking part.”

The group started out hoping to raise $1,500 from the money they take in from the haunted house and from a motorcycle poker run they’ve held to help fund one charity. They have since increased their goal to $7,000 and plan to donate to several charities.

“I think we are going to do better than $7,000,” Monroe said.

The group thinks they will be able to raise enough money to fully fund the “Christmas for Kids” program at Park City and to fund a portion of a similar program at Caverna Elementary.

Proceeds from the haunted house will also go to help fund a field trip for Park City Elementary students, the Park City Little League, the cheerleading program at Caverna High School and art programs at Park City and Caverna Elementary.

The volunteers visited the schools and asked what programs needed help and how it would benefit children most, he said.

Nathan Wyatt, principal at Caverna Elementary, said his school will appreciate any help the group can provide for programs at the school.

As for the Christmas for Kids program, he said, it is a very important program.

“We have a lot of kids who benefit from the ‘Christmas Angel’ program. We’ve got kids, unfortunately, who wouldn’t have Christmas at all if it wasn’t for the ‘Christmas Angel’ program,” he said.

And as for the arts program at the school, Wyatt, said is really underfunded, yet it is an important program for the students.

“It helps to develop well-rounded individuals. When they redid the tests (Kentucky Core Content Test), the arts are no longer tested,” he said. “We have to fund (arts programs) at our local board level.”

The hotel property is owned by the city of Park City and Mayor David Lyons said he thinks it’s great what the group of volunteers are doing.

“I can’t tell you how great it is to have people interested in doing something in the community,” he said. “That’s something that has been lacking for quite some time.”

Monroe said the group is hoping to do similar fundraisers on an annual basis for charities that will benefit local children.