NORWICH – Denise and Carol Spratley recently organized and hosted a haunted house—complete with cannibalistic toddlers and legless crawling zombies—within the Norwich Grange Hall on East River Road.

At the core of the event, the duo created the creepy corridor with the intention of raising much needed awareness and funding for two area nonprofits they hold near and dear – The Chenango SPCA and Catholic Charities.

“We love animals, and we both have had experiences with the Crime Victims Advocacy program of Catholic Charities," said Denise Spratley. 

Both women were concerned with the lack of funding for the program, prompting them to brainstorm a way to raise cash to donate in an effort to help.

The Spratley family operates the Route 12 Bottle and Can Redemption Center—across from B&D Pools, just south of Norwich— which routinely hosts bottle drives for area nonprofits and charities. 

Typically, CSPCA accepts bottles and cans at their 6160 County Road 32 Norwich location, community members looking to make a donation of returnables can simply bring their cans and bottles to the redemption center where the SNOOP account will be credited; which eliminates the logistics of transporting the returnables.