HALLSBORO, N.C. — Galloway Farm has been the home of Maze Craze for the past 10 years, and Alma Galloway wasn't willing to let tradition stop this year. Nothing makes her happier than welcoming people to her farm and showing them where many of their everyday needs come from.

Each fall she transforms her farm into 13 acres of corn mazes and plenty of activities and games for kids. The pandemic threatened to ruin the fun this year so Galloway began looking for alternatives.

“At this stage in the game everybody knows what their responsibility is,” Galloway said. “As a business owner I obviously am going to do my due diligence to do everything to keep my guests safe, my employees safe, my family safe.”

In the past people would use a hole punch and a card at each checkpoint throughout the maze. This meant hundreds of people touching the same object at each station, and she knew she had to do something different this year.

“Now users will get to enter the maze, scan the QR code, and immediately on their phone they have a digital punch card as well as a timer,” Galloway said. “So they go to the signs, they find them, they enter a code, and it just checks it off the list for them.”

The QR code means guests don't come in contact with anything in the maze besides occasionally brushing a cornstalk or two. With tickets being sold online and by arrival time, Galloway is able to limit the number of people she has on the grounds, but she says with 25 acres, there is plenty of space to spread out.

“Normally you just come anytime, walk up, buy a ticket, but because of COVID we have capacity restrictions,” Galloway said.

The only things people are touching are the activities themselves, and staff regularly clean the high-traffic areas. Galloway says that people know the drill at this point and respect the distance, willingly spreading out to various activities.

She hopes that people enjoy the high-tech maze as much as they did in the past and come out again this year to find some smiles and perhaps start a new tradition.

“I want it to be perfect,” Galloway said. “I want it to be personal. I want them to know when they come to the gate that this is my farm, and I'm so glad they chose to come out and see us.”