Viking graveyard spooks Seaford

The Viking Graveyard, nestled on William Street in Seaford, will scare the life right out of any passerby. Do you dare enter the unknown? With boarded up windows, an eerie pumpkin patch, a three-headed, vicious dog and a masked man with a chainsaw accessory, there is no way out of this haunted maze. The entry price? Canned food.

Julie and Brian Nietsch have been spooking Seaford residents during the month of October for the past dozen years. With five barrels outside of their home, the Nietsch family collects canned goods for Long Island Cares, a non-profit organization created to help feed the hungry on Long Island.

“About six or seven years ago, we were looking at other haunted houses,” Nietsch said, “and someone challenged us to raise food. So we started with Long Island Cares and we started to raise 400 to 800 pounds of food a year.

“So we ask for non-perishable goods from Oct. 17, when we open, to Oct. 31 and they come by and pick up all of the bags,” she added. “This year, we want to go for 1,000 pounds. We haven’t broken it yet and I want to this year.”

Although a canned good isn’t required to enter the haunted front yard, the Nietsch family still encourages residents to donate to the cause.

It takes up to six weeks for the Nietsch family to prepare and set up the various scenes and figures for the graveyard to be ready by Oct. 17, just two weeks before Halloween night. With the help of their two children, Nicole, 10, and Kayla, 13, the Nietsches are ready to scare anyone willing to visit.

“When I was growing up, my idea of Halloween was who could get the most candy and fill up the pillow case,” Nietsch said. “Well, my husband grew up with ‘who are we scaring?’ and ‘what scene should we create on the third floor?’”

His father would also come by with the pumpkin head from the Great Pumpkin scene, she added, so they eventually started doing it together.

The family members have their roles in the event every year by dressing up in costumes and surprising unsuspecting people. Nicole and Kayla, along with their dance friends from Cristina’s Dance Unlimited, have fun dressing up in costumes and scaring their classmates from Seaford Middle School and Seaford Manor School.