As Halloweekend approached, Whitworth held several events to reel in the spooky season. Included in this plethora of seasonal activities was “Spooky Story Fright Night” held on Thursday, Oct. 20, where students could share their favorite scary stories. Another event was the “Pumpkin Carving Party” which was held on the lawn of Cowles Music Center on Tuesday, Oct. 25.
The annual Warren “Monster Mash” and Ballard/McMillan (BMAC) “Haunted House” were by far the most anticipated of the fall events.
“We have some pretty horrifying things. We did bring back the dolls after they were super popular last year, except this year, there’s more… much more,” Ballard Senator Mackenzie Quinn said.
The haunted house not only provided ample occasion to celebrate an eerie holiday in all of its ghostly glory but also, brought BMAC residents together to collaborate and create, as it does each year.
“The effort that goes into this project is not fueled by material gain, nor is it inspired by selfish pride. It is the product of intense communal love, and a pride of who we are as a residence hall of interconnected people,” said McMillan Senator Lucien Dallabetta. “That is the only reward we get from ‘Haunted House,’ but it is also the only reward that we need. For that love of each other, we dedicate an entire day of our lives to this one project. There is nothing more rewarding than that.”
There was a lot of planning and preparation that went into the “Haunted House” event.
Dallabetta said, “The best part of the ‘Haunted House’ is the 24 hours of effort that goes into its success beforehand. At 8 p.m. on Friday, we start to build the frame for the house. This year it took three hours. At 6 a.m. the next morning, work for the house began and we did not stop until 8 p.m. when we started to prep for opening.” The enormous amount of dedication and pride directed toward the tradition of the Ballard/McMillan “Haunted House” created a culture around the project.
“Since each section [of the ‘Haunted House’] was created individually, their inspirations were diverse as well. Some of them were more based on films, such as the ‘Willie’s Wonderland’ and ‘Coraline’ sections, while some were ideas that we put together through experimentation, like the Plague and Shadow Demon concepts,” explained Dallabetta. “Other ideas were expanded on from last year’s sections of dolls and mattress maze, while the rest, Freakshow, Slaughterhouse and Crawl Space, came directly from the imagination of the section leaders themselves.”
Dallabetta added, “If you ever get a chance, I would encourage anyone who loves the Haunted House to help build it or act in it next year. Only a thriving community could build something this big, and there’s nothing like being a part of it.”
