FLC’s Haunted House Gives Back to Community
Kim Cassels
The Fort Lewis College Residence Hall Association and Students Union Productions hosted a haunted house in the Union Ballroom Oct. 24 and 25. This year, the event raised funds which went towards the Rainbow Youth Alliance.
The theme was to design the haunted house as the home of a mad scientist, Margaret Watts, associate director for housing, said.
The entrance was a forest that lead to a hallway of wispy spider webs. The hallway went through rooms laden with chopped up body parts, convincing animatronic zombies and nightmarish characters, Watts said.
The end of the haunted house featured a gaunt butler standing incredibly still and stoic for people to take pictures with him. The man acting as the butler was the founder of the FLC haunted house, an associate director for housing, Edgar Anaya Quiroga.
Gore makeup was constructed with layers of toilet paper covered with latex. Once it dried it could be cut to the skin and filled with blood, Ashley Vandenberg, a resident assistant who volunteered said.
There were eleven rooms in the haunted house which were sponsored by different residence halls, the residence hall association and SUP. Around 60 volunteers helped execute the event this year including everything from setup, acting and logistics, Watts said.
Volunteers for the haunted house are mainly from student housing however any students who are interested in participating are welcome for future haunted houses, Watts said.
The haunted house funds this year were donated in full to the Rainbow Youth Center, a safe space for LGBTQ individuals between ages 13 to 18. The funds go toward the facility and faculty training, Kelsey Lansing, volunteer for Sexual Assault Services Organization, said.
Quiroga started the charity haunted house seven years ago in Cooper Hall where students rooms were the scenes of terror, he said.
“There was one scene where you would open the bathroom door and automatically the shower curtain would open up and someone would jump out,” Quiroga said.
The event raised $250 for Habitat for Humanity and has remained a fundraiser for community organizations ever since, he said
Last year, the haunted house had over a thousand people in two days, raising a total of $1,400, Watts said.
In the past the haunted house has donated the funds to Big Brothers Big Sisters as well as Habitat for Humanity and other local organizations, Watts said.
“We don’t make money off the event but all the money we charge the community goes back into the community.” Watts said, “It’s a way to have fun and have some impact on different community groups that give back in other ways.”