CROTHERSVILLE — For Donna Barger, Halloween is her favorite time of the year.

“When I was little, I went to this one house, and this one guy scared me to death, and since then, I’ve just loved it,” she said, smiling.

She and her husband, Mark Barger, are in their 25th year of operating a haunted house at their home in Crothersville.

For most of those years, it was set up in the front yard of their home at 406 N. Jackson St. and the garage next to their house.

Last year, a 30-by-60-foot barn was built across the street from their home, and it’s now home to their haunted attraction. It’s at 405 N. Jackson St.

Barger’s Haunted House opened to friends and family this past Saturday and the public on Sunday. It will be open again this weekend from 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 6 p.m. to whenever on Tuesday, which is Halloween night. They will hand out candy on the latter night.

While they advertise the haunted house as free, they appreciate donations.

“If they’ve got money, that’s fine. If they don’t, I don’t care. It’s just I prefer that they give a small donation because that helps with the maintenance and getting the candy and stuff for the following year,” Donna said.

So how did this all get started? Donna said she was involved with the Disabled Veterans Wish Foundation, and that organization had a haunt at a park in Bedford. That led to her starting her own at home.

“I’d just pick up stuff here and there,” she said. “Home Depot, Spirit Halloween, the Dollar Tree and Dollar General stores, I buy all of my stuff from there. I just basically say they sponsor us because that’s where I buy most of my stuff.”

When the haunted house was at their home, the Bargers put Halloween decorations in their front yard, and after people walked through that, they went in the side door of the garage and walked through the haunted maze in the garage and came out through the front.

Three years ago, they outgrew that space, so they began working toward building a barn. Last year, that was available to use for the first time.

People enter the kitchen door on the front of the barn and then go back outside and enter the haunted house through the garage door. They weave their way through the barn and come out a door on the right side. Then they walk back to a cemetery display before following the path back to the front of the barn, where there are more large Halloween decorations.

“There are going to be people to help scare,” Donna said as to not give away her secrets of where they will be. “I’ve got quite a few.”

Over the years, the Bargers have spent a lot of money on animatronics for the haunted house and candy to hand out on Halloween. The feedback they receive on the attraction, however, is priceless.

“The community kids and their smiles,” Donna said when asked why she continues to do this each year. “I had one little girl come up the other day out here in the front and she said, ‘Your house is the best one in Crothersville. It looks great.’”

Mark said he likes the kids’ reactions, too.

“These kids will come home from school, they’ll line up (on the sidewalk outside the barn) and they’ll chitchat back and forth. I get a lot of them that they’ll come up and they’ll see it and just freeze up. ‘You don’t have to go in. Here’s you some candy,’” he said.

Even though it takes a lot of time to set everything up, the Bargers feel it’s time well spent to do something for the community. This is the first year they are doing the haunted house two weekends in a row.

“We like Halloween,” Mark said.

As for continuing the haunted house, the couple plans to do so if all is well.

“I’ve wanted to give up a lot of times because I can’t do a lot now because of my health,” Donna said. “My husband is mainly doing it by himself. He’s basically decorating and putting up my lights for me. It’s getting harder and harder on us because we’re both in our 60s, and I don’t know how much longer I can do it, but I’m going to do it as long as I can.”

If you go

What: Barger’s Haunted House

When: 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday and 6 p.m. to whenever on Halloween night Tuesday

Where: 405 N. Jackson St., Crothersville

Who: Open to the public

Cost: Free, but donations are appreciated