On October 29th, Hinsdale South’s Student Council had their annual Haunted House!

Now, it might be confusing why a high school would put on a Haunted House in the Study Hall Classroom for two hours every year before Halloween. 

When interviewing one of the club sponsors, Mrs.

stated that “20 years ago we had a student at the time who had Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and we decided to do a fundraiser to help others with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.” From there, they kept on doing the Haunted House as the Student Council enjoyed making the Haunted House that year. But as time went on they’ve more recently switched to donating to the American Cancer Society, which was the charity they donated to this year. 

The Haunted House is planned in four meetings all in one month before the actual event. The Student Council works together to pick out room leaders for the four ‘rooms’ they have at the Haunted House. The room leaders are typically members who are active in Student Council and volunteer to be room leaders. They split the Study Hall room into four different ‘rooms’ with themes that the room leaders pick. In meetings they discuss the layout, costumes, and props used. Ozan, the co-room leader of the ‘clown’ room remarked that “Almost 100% of the building happens the day of because it is…used daily, but planning is a little complicated. Besides the fact that turning a classroom into a haunted house is inherently challenging due to the openness of the room, we have to communicate with other rooms to figure out how to turn our four separate rooms into one coherent Haunted House”. 

The Student Council puts up black tarp all across the room, and starts putting their designs

up from the layout they planned in meetings. This year, there was a clown room, Wizard of Oz/Wicked inspired one, a graveyard, and a doctor room. Each room had multiple scare actors as well as a Guide who takes you through the whole Haunted House by walking in front of you as you experience the Haunted House. 

As you walk through each room, each room is meant to give you an experience, told through a very strategic ‘storytelling’ aspect according to Mr. Moore. Each room is supposed to give you a different experience, like one room being more of a ‘skit’ while others are more quiet and meant to creep you out. 

The Haunted House also gives many kids from the feeder schools a chance to come to Hinsdale South to have fun. With the Haunted House mainly being targeted to younger kids. 

Overall the Haunted House gives a fun spooky activity for families and students wanting to have a fun time while donating to charity.