The door opened, and students were led into a dark corridor. Lights were flashing to accompany the spooky howls and thundering music playing through the room, and when least expected, students were shocked and startled by menacing Halloween figures cloaked in black, fake blood or scary makeup. While students were ushered to the next room, anticipation began to grow, as students did not know who or what was waiting for them behind the next door.
“A Haunted House Experience: A Million Ways to Die” was a first-time haunted house event for Plattsburgh State. Screams filled the Angell College Center as students lined up for the Pre-Med Association’s Halloween event held in the Warren Ballrooms.
Pre-Med Association president and PSUC senior Solomon Amadiume said that they started planning the haunted house event over the summer. In addition to getting more involved on campus, the association wanted to focus on an event that had not been featured on campus before.
Aside from bringing the Halloween spirit to PSUC, the association also raised money for a non-profit organization.
Amadiume said the proceeds are going to underwrite a mission through The Water Project, a non-profit organization that provides access to clean and safe water to communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Typically, in those areas, the girls of the villages have to walk miles and miles to bring water to their families before starting their school day.
The Haunted House featured three different “tracks,” or routes that students could walk through, each filled with different monsters and frightful themes.
The routes of the haunted house featured different scares in each room, including crazy doctors, ghosts and a frightening little girl who chased visitors of the house. Those who acted in the house also popped out from curtains sporting scary masks and makeup to surprise those who walked through.
“We’re happy with the way it turned out. It’s been a learning experience,” Amadiume said.
PSUC senior Steven Segarra, a member of the Pre-Med Association, said it was a learning experience for the group as well.
“We usually don’t do big events, so we started from scratch,” Segarra said.
He also said the group didn’t know what to expect, but he was pleased with the event.
“It was so scary, my throat hurts from screaming,” PSUC freshman Nicole Castaldo said.
PSUC senior Ariel Monserrate said she was pleasantly surprised and that she would attend next year, if a similar event occurred.
The haunted house raised over $700.
The Activities Coordination Board’s Special Events Committee, along with UNICEF and K.I.N.K.S., partnered with the Pre-Med Association to hold the event. On the adjacent side of the Warren Ballrooms, ACB and UNICEF raised awareness for the new UNICEF organization on campus all while spreading Halloween spirit.
PSUC’s UNICEF, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, focuses on providing relief to children across the world in impoverished and war-torn areas.
The club’s event planner, PSUC junior marketing major Samantha Spellman, said this was the club’s first big event on campus and that the club had been looking for a way to spread Halloween spirit.
The event also featured a pie eating contest. PSUC junior Tyler Ellis consumed the most pies that night.
“You just have to keep remembering to swallow, otherwise you end up with apple pie in your nose,” Ellis said.
“He was an animal,” Spellman said about Ellis’s contest victory.
The chair of the ACB committee, PSUC senior and hotel, restaurant, and tourism management major Brenden Husted, said the event had a great turn out. He also said the club wanted to focus on something that hasn’t been done on campus before.
Email Marissa Russo at marissa.russo@cardinalpointsonline.com
