EVERETT — Forget the screams of teenage girls.
The Everett Jaycees know they have a successful Haunted Forest when grown men run from the woods breathless and shaken.
The haunt at Forest Park is even too scary for longtime Jaycee member and volunteer Mikki Richard.
“I know what’s down there in that ravine,” she said. “And I know something is going to jump out at me.”
On the other hand, Richard admitted she rarely looks out windows at night and never lets her feet hang over the bed for fear that someone might be there to scare or grab her.
“I’m a baby,” she said.
Wearing a flowing black dress, black lipstick, dark eye makeup and black tresses streaked with strands of white hair, Richard prefers to greet those who dare enter the Haunted Forest.
“The little girls ask me about my costume and I tell them I’m a princess,” Richard said. “They don’t buy that.”
Richard, 31, a married mother of two young boys and a Marysville resident, has been a member of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, or Jaycees, since 1997.
She grew up in Yakima and moved to the Everett area to finish her education. Now employed at a payroll company in Bothell, Richard stays busy with her family and her involvement in the Jaycees.
“Being a part of something and making a difference in the community is important to me. It’s my passion,” she said. “The Jaycees gives me that and more.”
Richard credits her impending promotion to management at her job to the training she’s received through the Jaycees.
“Five years ago, I would not have been able to stand up in any crowd and speak,” she said. “Because of my work in Jaycees, I am now helping others learn how to manage projects.”
Her friend and fellow Jaycee member Sara Ballard calls Richard the “cornerstone” of the Everett Jaycees. Ballard, who works as the volunteer coordinator for United Way of Snohomish County, said Richard is an outstanding volunteer.
“Mikki is the go-getter of the club,” Ballard said. “She’s always thinking and trying out new ideas.”
Richard’s biggest job in the Jaycees is as chairwoman of the club’s Independence Day parade in downtown Everett. She works year-round on the parade and is eager to improve the July 4 event.
“Our biggest problem is getting marching bands and drill teams involved,” she said. “Cascade High School has agreed to march next summer, so we’re happy about that.”
Richard and the Everett Jaycees also collect donations for local food banks, adopt a family each year for the holidays, help put on a Thanksgiving dinner at the Flying Pig restaurant in downtown Everett and hand out flowers to hospital patients at Easter.
The Haunted Forest is the major fundraiser for all these projects, and, in addition, the club donates a portion of its gate receipts to the Greater Everett Community Foundation to support Everett parks.
The fundraising effort was jeopardized Saturday night when the Jaycees club and its crew could not open the Haunted Forest.
On what is traditionally the club’s busiest night, vandals had cut every extension cord used to light the walk through the woods.
“I cried,” Richard said. “We had a big group of high school students there to help us and we had 150 people lined up to get in.”
But from that crowd, a dozen people stepped forward to help fix the forest haunt, she said.
The club, with help from family and friends, worked all weekend and was able to reopen the Haunted Forest for Monday and Tuesday.
Tonight, the Jaycees are hoping for a big turnout and are eager to hear the screams of teenage girls and gasps of grown men.
“We have our share of fun,” Richard said.
Reporter Gale Fiege: gfiege@heraldnet.com or 425-339-3427.
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