By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Aug. 14, 2025) Ocean Pines’ annual haunted house volunteers were recognized this past week with the Sam Wilkinson Award, an honor given each year to an individual or team that lends a helping hand to community-wide efforts.

On Saturday, Aug. 9, at the neighborhood’s annual membership meeting, the crew responsible for putting on Ocean Pines’ yearly haunted house was honored with the Sam Wilkinson Volunteer Award. The accolade was established in 2003 in memory of eight-year-old Sam Wilkinson, who died in a water accident in Ocean City and whose father was a volunteer coach for Ocean Pines’ youth soccer.

Recipients of the praise are often participants in recreation and parks programs. This year, the award was given to several volunteers: the crew that organizes the Halloween haunted house at the Ocean Pines Community Center.

The Sam Wilkinson Award was announced by Ocean Pines Association’s Recreation and Parks Director Debbie Donahue. This year’s grantees were Timmy and Christy Cooper, Erica Henry, and Brooks Henry.

Donahue said that Timmy Cooper is the “brains of the group.”

“He sits at night, while he’s supposed to be sleeping, and figures out how [the haunted house] is going to work every year,” the director added.

Donahue said that Erica Henry is the “creative lady who does all the face painting, artistic work, and keeps the kids in check.”

The haunted house’s project manager is Christy Cooper, while Brooks Henry is the “MacGyver” of the group, who can “take a rubber band and a piece of paper and build a building with it,” Donahue said. The recreation lead noted that Henry acts as the construction and electrician for the program.

“This group of people has worked tirelessly and endlessly to be able to put this function on for us,” Donahue said. “They start probably about three months ago with their thought process, how this is going to work, where we are going to go, how we are going to change it, and each year it becomes bigger and better.”

“We are not doing the award with just one person this year; we are doing it with the whole group,” she continued. “They’re not just there with the haunted house, but with multiple things that if I call them, they are right here with the trucks and trailers. There are more than I can even say in all the things that they do for me.”

Ocean Pines Association Board of Directors member Elaine Brady said that each awardee will receive the book, “History of Ocean Pines, Maryland,” written initially by Bud Rogner and reprinted by a newly established historic workgroup. A plaque with the haunted house crews’ names will also be erected in the community center lobby.

This October is the recreation and parks department’s fifth annual haunted house. While the festivity is typically hosted inside the community center, Donahue said that this year’s event will have a change of venue and will instead be held by the community’s boat ramps. The rec and parks director said that the adjustment is the start of a “whole new tradition of having [the event] outside.”