RHA and SAB Host Halloween Events

Managing Editor

Photo by Linna Jones

Organ Harvesting- First-year student Melina Long, playing a evil doctor, prepares her victim junior Kendra Huskey, playing an old woman, for Chop Shop scene in the Horsfall House of Horror Oct. 30.  About 240 people attended the two day event.

   The Residence Hall Association and the Student Activity Board held Halloween-themed events Oct. 30-31.

   The Residence Hall Association held their second haunted house with the theme “Horsfall House of Horror.” They held the haunted house over three time periods: Oct. 30 from 6 - 11 p.m. and Oct. 31 from 4 - 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. - 12 a.m. They led the tours in groups of five. Overall, 240 people attended the event.

   The RHA charged an entrance fee of $2 or two can food items. They will use the cans for a canned food tree at Christmas. Some of the money raised will go toward buying more canned food and the rest will be saved to use for other events. They collected 58 cans Oct. 30 and over 140 cans Oct. 31.

   RHA President Yvonne Hinshaw and Zack Tucker came up the original six to seven scenes used in the haunted house. Ruey Hendrix and Hinshaw kept the event organized and made sure the plots were different for each time frame. For the different plots, they changed the position of the people inside the haunted house.

   The tour guide led guests through several scenes including an evil doctor harvesting organs out of an old patient. Next they went to the suicide room and then walked through the tunnel-like dark room to  enter a hall way, where they have the choice of entering one of two hall ways. Actors hide on the other side to jump out and scare them. The tour continues along the maze to the blood room and then to the old man's house. The old man yells at the guest to get out of his house and then they see a couch and a zombie approach them from the Zombie room. A crazy woman jumps up from behind the couch to tell them not to sit. Guests then entered the bone yard, which is scattered with arms, legs, skeletons and dead bodies and then enter the boiler room. By this time, most of the actors, which were in the beginning, hide in various places in the room. An actor flickers the light to create a strobe effect and then the lights go out. At the end of the tour, another actor holds the exit shut so the guest cannot get out and then lets go of the door.

  The RHA used black lights, strobe lights and fog machines for different effects and fans to keep cool. Fifteen actors participated Oct. 30 and 21 actors and volunteers participated after the football game Oct. 31.

  Hinshaw described the event as wonderful.

 "Everybody worked very hard this year, we had some great volunteers," Hinshaw said. "It was a pretty good turn out."

  The rules for the event asked for anyone 16 years-old or under to accompanied by an adult. Hinshaw said they wanted to make sure parents knew the event was going to be gory and there was going to be blood.

   The RHA started hosting the haunted house last year in the basement of Horsfall Hall with the theme of a haunted hospital.  In 2008, they collected 140 cans for the canned Christmas tree.

Photo by Linna Jones

Candle Shoot- Ten-year old Nora Catherine Saffold tries to shoot out the  flame of a candle at  Sigma Tau Delta's Edgar Allan Poe booth. Sigma Tau Delta won third place in the booth contest.

  The SAB held a Spooktakular Tailgating Event Oct. 31, because the home game would be played on Halloween. They asked organizations on campus to create a carnival booth for tailgaters to visit. Seventeen organizations entered to decorate their booths.

   Chancellor Jack Lassiter talked about the benefits of the event.

   "It's great, because its community people, university people, children, faculty and students all having fun together," Lassiter said.

    They awarded three cash prizes including; $100 for 1st place, $75 for 2nd  and $50 for 3rd place. The winners were: Student to Student for 1st place, Residence Hall Association for 2nd place and Sigma Tau Delta for 3rd. The RHA had five areas, a general booth, and one each for Horsfall, Bankston, Maxwell and Royer Halls. They each had a different game for each of the Hall booths. Horsfall Hall had a dart and balloon game, a football throw for Maxwell, ring toss for Royer and monster bowling for Bankston.

   Sigma Tau Delta created a Edgar Allan Poe themed booth and Student to Student used the theme "Happy Weevilween." The members of Student to Student dressed in costumes varying from pirates to 50s and 70s themed costumes. 

   Krystal Pinkus, a member of the Monticello community attend the event with her children: Ty, Payton,  and Ladon. Ty liked the monster bowling. She described the atmosphere and what she thought about the day.

   "It was nice, the kids had a really good time," Pinkus said. "It was nice to see the college kids interacting with the little kids."

   UAM Students and children could also enter a costume contest. Over 17 entered the adult costume contest and about seven children entered the children’s contest. Three contestant out of each contest received a prize. Winners of the adult costume contest received monetary prizes of $100 for 1st place, $75 for 2nd  and $50 for 3rd place. Judges based their decision for the winners of booth contest and costume contest on creativity,originality and school or Halloween spirit .

     Zack Tucker and Angelia Buford judge the booths and seniors Jessica Heird and Emilie Hobbs judged the costume contest.

   The SAB announced the winners of the children’s contest during the game. The winner for the children’s contest included:

•   Elsa Stubbs as a black cat won first place. She received a hoodie and a stuffed Boll Weevil toy.
•  Megan Forrest, dressed as Octomom with babies hanging off her, won second. She received a Weevil shirt and a stuffed Boll Weevil toy.
•  Gabe Kuttenkuler, dressed in a Boll Weevil uniform as Scott Buisson, won second. He received a Weevil shirt and a stuffed Boll Weevil toy.

   The winners of the student costume contest included:

•  Krystal Prather-Harper in first place as the Good Witch
• Jay and Laura Hughes for second place as hippies
• Julie Gentry for third place as a green crayon

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