For the fifth straight year, Daymon and Karla Ward have transformed their Brownwood Manor home into “Deadwood Manor,” a neighborhood haunt that doubles as a community fundraiser for New Beginnings. This year, the couple built a towering pirate ship in their front yard, offering a nightly spectacle complete with fire towers, smoke cannons, and thunderous sound effects.
Visitors can’t climb aboard the ship, but they can gather to watch the show. The pirate ship lights up nightly from 6-9 p.m., but the full show only runs on Friday and Saturday evenings at 7, 7:30, and 8, weather permitting. Each performance lasts about 10 minutes, beginning with the haunting sea shanty “Hoist the Colors” by Sale North before shifting to a 6-minute loop of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme.
“We’re inside flipping switches while the fire towers are doing their thing, the smoke cannons are going off — it’s chaos,” Daymon said. “Most of our equipment isn’t weatherproof, so rain can be tough on it.”
What started as a simple display for their kids has turned into an elaborate annual tradition. In 2020, during the pandemic, the Wards staged a “Corpse Bride” wedding scene. Two years later, they built a working roller coaster that sent a cart crashing into a giant clown tent. Last year, more than 3,500 people toured their self-guided haunted house on the front lawn.
This year’s pirate theme was inspired by a pair of animatronics the family purchased last fall. Daymon said he began test-building the ship in their backyard in the spring to ensure the scale was right. The final version took about 10 evenings to assemble, with the most daunting task being the mast — a 200-pound structure that required three men, a hole in the ground, and plenty of rope to secure.
“Once we got that up, everything else came together,” he said. “We just kind of build as big as we can until we run out of steam. We both have full-time jobs, so it’s always a balance.”
The display is free to visit, but donations are encouraged and benefit New Beginnings Sexual Assault Support Services, an organization Kara directs.
“While this isn’t one of our major fundraisers, it’s money that goes directly toward client services,” Karla said. “But it’s also a huge awareness event. People come out, enjoy the show, and then ask us about what New Beginnings does. Sometimes it’s the first time they’ve ever heard of us.”
New Beginnings serves seven counties, offering free therapy for survivors of sexual violence, legal advocacy in the courtroom, hospital crisis response, and prevention programming from elementary classrooms through adult workshops. Volunteers are always needed, particularly to help cover overnight crisis line shifts.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have the community support both this project and New Beginnings,” Karla said. “It’s a way for us to give people a little Halloween fun while also giving back.”
