I’m glad she did.

She invited me to take pictures at a haunted house being put on by her local comunity watch group on Buffalo Street in Wendell.

I arrived a little before 8 p.m. during a lull in the proceedings. Before I got there, Whitley said, about 100 children had been through the haunted house.

She was expecting about twice that number before the end of the night.

Visitors entered the three-room haunted house through a haze of smoke that clutched the ground like fog.

The trip through the house was not too scary until I reached the last room.

There, by the exit door, sat a gorilla. I knew there was a person inside the costume and I knew he was going to jump at me.

And, still, it scared the bejeebers out of me.

Whitley pointed out that the folks who really ran the haunted house were young people who were giving up their own Halloween trick-or-treating to put on a show for visitors.

The entire event is a production of the Buffalo Street neighborhood’s community watch program. In addition to Whitley and her husband, Chris, other neighbors were also there, directing traffic and guiding visitors.

Others had a role to play inside the haunted house.

And that’s what made me really glad I went.

More than just a community watch program, the group has created a real community within Wendell.

Neighbors know each other and spend time doing things together. Usually only neighborhood children act that way.

More than any other community watch program, the Buffalo Street crowd takes the idea seriously. In addition to the Halloween effort, they are planning a yard sale next spring.

Before that, the group will spearhead the effort to have residents along Buffalo Street go overboard with their

Christmas decorations, making it a must-see for people out looking at the Christmas lights.

And for those who praise their hometown for being a nice place, no one can hold a candle to the Buffalo Street gang.