- Many people associate Halloween with horror. But this story is about the people who found love in the season of the spooky.
- Greg and Angi Sweere met in church, and now they have a marriage, friendships, and children all borne of their work at a haunted house complex.
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
A lot of people think of horror movies and haunted houses when they think of Halloween. But this family — also — thinks of love.
I'm your Neenah Neighborhood Reporter Darby McCarthy, and I met people who showed me the beautiful side of spooky season.
“This is our favorite time of year.”
Most of the time, if you ask Angi Sweere what she does for a living, she'll tell you she's in the medical field.
“It's weird because I'll be sitting there like talking about, you know, your blood pressure, and then we start talking about how I dress up as a tooth fairy.”
And Greg Sweere will say he works in telecommunications.
But in October, this couple has another gig.
"We’ve gained friends, we gained family, we've gone to weddings, we’ve had Godchildren from there."
Since 2006, Greg and Angi have worked together at the Burial Chamber Haunted House Complex.
“And, like, to this day, primarily most of our friends are from the haunted house.”
“Or we've dragged them to work at the haunted house.”
“Or we’ve dragged to work at the haunted house! Yeah.”
When Greg and Angi got married, their cake toppers and wedding photos might have tipped you off to their favorite season.
“I think my favorite part of our wedding is we took a giant group photo of every Burial Chamber actor that came to our wedding, and it's huge.”
And now they have two kids who are 9 and 15. They say their kids have to wait until they are adults before they can join the Burial Chamber's cast of "scare-acters."
“In the blink of an eye they grow up and now they're wielding chainsaws and axes of their own.”
They know that their passion might seem weird to people who don't delve into the world of horror, but they say not to judge a robot monkey and his tooth fairy bride at first sight.
“We just want you to enjoy our world.”
They say the reason for the season isn't just fear...
“The world is a scary place. Scare back.”
...That's only a part of it.
They say it's really all about love.
“Seeing how much joy it brings us. The passion we have for the community in general... Obviously, it's brought us friends and family and a community... It's actually pretty cool.”
So, whether you're totally avoidant of all things ghastly or counting down the days until the next October, Greg and Andgi say that staying connected is the most important part.
“Like, we'll be scary, but we'll also be your friends. Like, we love it. We love it.”
