Sainte Dorothée residence ‘scariest house in Canada’

www.thesuburban.com

From Oct. 28-31, Tom Jonas will transform his Laval home at 1750 du Portage
into an unmatched display of Halloween
ghoulishness.

His objective, he told The Suburban, is
to attract attention and raise enough
money to buy three volumetric pumps
for the Montreal Children’s Hospital
neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

“These machines, which cost $5,000
apiece, administer intravenous fluids
with great accuracy, which is paramount
when delivering medicine to extremely
tiny, premature infants,” he said. “The
NICU treats about 400 acutely ill infants
each year.”

Besides the familiar Halloween goblins, ghosts, skeletons and coffins, Jonas
has attracted high profile sponsors.

501st Legion, sanctioned by Lucasfilm, will have Star Wars characters on
hand to greet young visitors, and a
portable photo lab will be set up to let
visitors have their photo taken with one
of three popular Marvel characters, the
Hulk, Spiderman and Iron Man for a $10
fee.

“My main goal this year is to get people to donate on line at www.bigchills.ca,” explained Jonas.

“I get so much support from my sponsors,” he acknowledged. “We’ll be giving
out Crayola comic books from Disney
with Pixar makers, comic books from
Capitaine Québec and Oasis fruit juice.
Lego Canada is involved, and Reno Dépot
was instrumental in helping me to build a guillotine. Likewise Canadian Tire.
Metro Plus Perrier-Martel in Laval is sup-
plying candy and chips for the thousands
of kids we expect. Party Experts, Wal-Mart, Charisma real estate, Cuisinox and
Big Shots marketing have also pitched in.”

Now in its fifth year, Jonas has had to involve Securitas Canada to prevent vandalism.

“Without a security guard, people
would take the stuff that is there.”

Massive Halloween display at 1750 du Portage in Laval attracts thousands of visitors each year, in support of premature infants.