{"id":45441,"date":"2018-10-14T12:36:13","date_gmt":"2018-10-14T18:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=45441"},"modified":"2021-02-07T20:56:53","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T03:56:53","slug":"calgary-corn-maze-doing-its-best-to-shake-off-fall-chill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/10\/14\/calgary-corn-maze-doing-its-best-to-shake-off-fall-chill\/","title":{"rendered":"Calgary Corn Maze doing its best to shake off fall chill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp\"><\/div>\n<figure id=\"attachment_45519\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45519\" style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45519\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0091-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0091-2.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0091-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0091-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0091-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-45519\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The entrance to the Calgary Corn maze on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. The corn maze has been running every year since 2008. (Photo by Taylor Morton\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">T<\/span>he Calgary Corn Maze has been offering family-friendly fun out of southeast Calgary since 2008 and the operators don\u2019t plan on stopping any time soon.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">T<\/span>his fall, the weather has been anything but orthodox and it\u2019s been a struggle for the maze.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a challenge,\u201d said Mark Muschka, owner and operator of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.calgarycornmaze.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Calgary Corn Maze<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou still do all the same things, marketing, advertising, you just have to give it time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Muschka said that the challenges of the fall weather were predated by the serious fire smoke that hindered Calgary&#8217;s air quality this past summer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJuly was a nice month in terms of weather, but it\u2019s usually our lowest historical attendance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attendance at the maze depends on weather and this fall it\u2019s been cold and foggy but Muschka wasn\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n<p>He says that once people get used to the cold fall weather the attendance will rise. \u201cPeople are not prepared for the cold of fall but they will come eventually.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Deanna Muschka, Mark\u2019s wife and co-owner of the Calgary Corn Maze, said that had the weather been warmer and drier, the attendance would have been five times higher than what it was.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the weather was nice there\u2019s be hundreds of guests here every weekend,\u201d said Deanna Muschka. \u201cThere would be 3,000-4,000 people per day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Muschkas said that what helps get the maze through low attendance rates is the staff they have working for them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur staff is like family here,\u201d said Mark Muschka.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne of our employees has been working here for 10 years and occasionally her husband comes around to help out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The day to day employees at the maze handle cleaning up after the animals, as well as feeding them. They also handle much of the customer service side of the maze, along with Deanna.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re the faces everyone sees when they come to the maze.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Calgary Corn Maze handles various types of events every year. They cater corporate groups often, as well as hosting family social functions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019ve been told that many of our family social functions are the best attended family gatherings throughout the year, including Christmas parties,\u201d said Mark Muschka.<\/p>\n<p>The maze will close just before Halloween, on Oct. 28<sup>th<\/sup> and won\u2019t be hosting much in terms of Halloween events.<\/p>\n<p>They close just before Halloween because \u201cusually people have their Halloween plans already,\u201d said Mark Muschka.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t haunt the maze at all because we\u2019re really good at focusing on family friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If the weather was nice there\u2019s be hundreds of guests here every weekend. There would be 3,000-4,000 people per day. &#8211; Deanna Muschka<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mark Muschka said that the low attendance this year could affect the ability to develop the maze for next year. However, he also said that, \u201cWe\u2019re always adding, and building. We want to make this place bigger, better.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_45520\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-45520\" style=\"width: 2560px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-45520\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0094-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0094-2.jpg 2560w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0094-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0094-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/20180921-Calgary-Corn-Maze-TM-0094-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-45520\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Calgary Corn Maze on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. The Calgary Corn Maze has been running every year since 2008. (Photo by Taylor Morton\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Calgary Corn Maze has been offering family-friendly fun out of southeast Calgary since 2008 and the operators don\u2019t plan on stopping any time soon. This fall, the weather has been anything but orthodox and <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2018\/10\/14\/calgary-corn-maze-doing-its-best-to-shake-off-fall-chill\/\" title=\"Calgary Corn Maze doing its best to shake off fall chill\">[ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":496,"featured_media":45465,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"S1 Calgary Corn Maze","footnotes":""},"categories":[1583],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-45441","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seasonal"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45441","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/496"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45441"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45441\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45922,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45441\/revisions\/45922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}