Teens transform Chicago Park District space into haunted house 16th annual "Park After Dark"

A Chicago Park District program has teens teeing up scares for Halloween for a good cause.

Bam Bam is among the 25 teens at Chase Park in the Uptown neighborhood who transformed the park into a ghoulish haunted house for the Park District's 16th annual Park After Dark.

"This is a totally new layout, and I take pride in what I do," he said while giving a tour of the macabre maze.

The teens, part of a club called the Society of Screams, spent weeks preparing for the Park After Dark program.

"This is definitely a passion project for them," said Katie Fearon, the park supervisor at Chase Park.

Fearon said the teens in the program learn valuable skills about putting on the production, from marketing to the performance.

"The kids really they do all the scaring, they design their costumes, they write the storyline that goes behind, goes with the whole haunt. It's all them, through and through," she said.

Money raised by ticket sales goes to teen programming at Chase Park.

Fearon said kids return to participate year after year to share in frights and memories.

"This specific programming really makes this little family within Chase Park, and the kids just, they adore it, they love it, they live for it," Fearon said. "I mean, they really do, and they work so hard."

Park After Dark runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Nov. 31.