Our Story:

Ever since I was young I had a crazy obsession and passion for Halloween, in particular decorating. It all started with one inflatable ghost from the superstore back when I was a toddler, I loved that guy till death. Until he popped and I had to find a replacement. My parents, specifically my father, get pretty frustrated with my Halloween “obession” as it has slowly taken over our storage space and it’s been quite the pricey hobby for only one day a year. I’d like to put it out there that it was my father who bought me my first decoration, hence it’s his fault the Halloween decorations took over the shed. 

It’s safe to say we had the best house in the neighbourhood during the Halloween season. After years of growing our decoration collection, we began creating little cemetery displays in our front year. Year after year the displays grew and so did our neighbours' interest. I used to have families and younger kids come up to me during the summer and ask when I would start putting out the Halloween decorations, I thought it was pretty cool that our display had become such a neighbourhood staple. 

Then a couple of years later and after having lots of community outreach and great reception with our graveyard display, I had the idea to create an immersive walkthrough in my garage. That was the moment Rocky Manor was born. After months of preparation, we launched our first walkthrough that was held in my garage and we had an amazing turnout. I remember we had one guest that begged her parents to stay because she loved going back inside to see the grim reaper. Which such a roaring amount of success the following year I wanted to use my love of Halloween to create a movement within my community. 

When I was four years old I visited the SickKids hospital for a minor ear infection that had me up all night. I remember how calm and patient the staff was with me and I am grateful for their service. Although my minor infection is nothing compared to the major treatments young patients undergo every year. To those that are fighting you are all warriors. I know of many people that have had run-ins with SickKids, both with good and bad outcomes and I want to help make a world where there are only positive outcomes. This Foundation is a cause that is been very close to my heart for years and I wanted to help make a difference within their community so, in 2014, I reached out to a friend of mine who worked for SickKids. After we had sat down and I presented the idea, we flushed out a game plan and in a matter of weeks had posters, banners and flyers ready to go for our first-ever Haunt for a Cure. With our infamous tagline being “We Scare Because We Care”. 

In our first year of fundraising, we raised just over $275, with help from neighbours and a local elementary school. This first year was a great kickstart to our haunted house fundraiser but was nowhere close to what we would eventually raise in the coming years. We came back in 2015 raising over $1,000 with a different style of a walkthrough. We had people walk through our front lawn and in the middle we set up a tent with a mini display. As I got older I wasn't able to invest as much time as I liked with these displays hence why there were smaller some years. In the following years, I had gotten overwhelmed with the transition from elementary school to high school and took a break from haunting. In my second year of high school once the stress of being a niner passed by I decided to start up another Rocky Manor fundraiser this time with heavy use of social media platforms. In the coming weeks of our event, we would constantly post new teasers and games for the community to interact with, which created ALOT of hype. The display this time around was redesigned with the walkthrough experience now going through my backyard. We had closed off our gazebos on our deck and turned them into little rooms guests could peer in as they passed by on the haunted trail. We had an amazing crowd come out for such a rainy day, we saw about 200 people go through the haunt and that showed with the funds we raised. Things were on the rise with Rocky Manor as we raised $1,800 for that year's event. 

Then the world stopped, Covid-19 put lives on hold and made it impossible for people to do any in-person activities for years. One lonely and isolated day in September I was sitting at home working on grade 12 English project and I thought just hit me. Next thing you know much like everything else in the world I decide to make this year's Rocky Manor virtually. In a matter of weeks, I channelled my inner videographer, pulled out all my decorations and threw my house upside down to create a mini horror film. I turned the various rooms of my house into our haunted house and used it as footage for the movie. This was unlike anything I had done before and it really made a step out of my comfort zone but I was determined to make it far better than anything I did the in the past and it really paid off. We had such a tremendous amount of support from family, friends and the community. Our video was viewed by hundreds and created a lot of online traction. On top of that all we raised over $2,600, our biggest donation to date! 

Today being August 2022, I am going into my second year of university studying business to become an entrepreneur with a life goal of creating the next SickKids Foundation. Through the various connections, I have made over the years I was able to facilitate a new event coming this Halloween 2022. Rocky Manor will be back in person for the first time in over four years and our goal for this event is the biggest it's ever been, to raise $5,000. Rocky Manor will be bigger and scarier than ever and open for multiple nights; for the first time ever. Though will all the positively this year it is going to be the beginning of the end. As I got older and my time becomes limited and invested in other ventures. I have less time to do the things I love like creating Haunted Houses. This year is going to be viewed as a pivot, as I’m introducing The Danny Jaromir Initiative. An Initiative that aims to help causes in need through various events; with Rocky Manor 2022 being one of them. Although I don’t know when the next Rocky Manor will be after this Halloween nor do I know if Rocky Manor will still be a thing. I want to make this haunted house the best one yet and launch an all-year-round initiative that will help create positive change in our local and nationwide communities. Let’s make a difference together.

Sincerely,

D.J. Della Rocca
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Thank You

We like to take a quick minute to thank a few people for helping make The Danny Jaromir Initiative a reality, we promise we won’t disappoint.

Thank you to…

Michaela Della Rocca

Gino Della Rocca

Maya Della Rocca

David Della Rocca

Teachers and Staff from St. Edmunds Catholic Elementary and St. Paul Catholic Secondary

And the entire SickKids Foundation Staff