CARMEL — Scaring for a good cause. That is the mission of one Carmel family this Halloween weekend.
“Every year it just gets bigger and better,” Nicholas Weninger said.
The Weninger family loves Halloween, and 'Garage of Fears’ takes over their garage. It all started five years ago at another house, out of state. But even with a move into their current home, the family tradition came with them.
“It means a lot to be able to see them be able to do this together because there are so many things that Lauryn can’t do,” Kim Weninger said. The Carmel mom has 17-year-old triplets, Lauryn, Nicholas, and Averi.
“Lauryn, when she was born, would have 150 seizures a day, so she had to have radical epileptic surgery called a left hemispherectomy, so the whole left hemisphere was removed from her brain,” Weninger said.
When this happened in 2005, Kim said information, support, and hope were scarce. A nonprofit called The Brain Recovery Project was created six years later. It focuses on making sure families, like the Weningers, have all of that and more.
This year, the family is donating 100% of the proceeds from the ‘Garage of Fears’ to the nonprofit.
“Inclusion is really important and having this for her is extremely important,” Weninger said.
This tradition not only bonds the family but is the topic of conversation for Lauryn in the weeks leading up to Halloween.
“We have some kids from Lauryn’s Special Olympics’ cheer come help volunteer for it,” Nicholas added.
Garage of Fears runs the following dates/times:
Address: 14305 Dufton Ct, Carmel, IN 46074
- Saturday, October 30, and Sunday, October 31.
- Scaredy cat version is from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at $10 per group
- Terrifying version is from 6:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at $5 per person
