New Ulm Nightmares started out with my love of Halloween and having fun on Halloween night,dressing up as a zombie to scare local children who were trick or treating at my house.  I had coached gymnastics for many years in Seattle and created a haunted house event at the gym.  As I was the coach of the Turner Hall Gymnastics team, I thought it would be fun to create a haunted house at the New Ulm Turner Hall to raise money to buy new gymnastics equipment.  I made all the walls and props with the help of my friend Dean.  My gymnasts and their parents helped set up the haunted house downstairs at Turner Hall.  We were going to open for one night only on Halloween night.  I was hoping for 100 people to come through, we had over 1,000 come through!!  It was a fun success!  I decided to go bigger and better the next year with all new themes.  My friends and family all helped along with my gymnasts and it was another success.  We were able to raise money to buy new mats and other gymnastics equipment.