Halloween is a holiday beloved by many around the world and at Winona State University. There are numerous activities to partake in, from trick or treating to carving pumpkins. Students that like chasing that adrenaline high however, the Haunted Floor might just be for them this fall. This annual event is held in a different residence hall every year; this year the event was held in Prentiss-Lucas.
The basement was full of scares and hard work done by students. The area was decorated with several different sections, and as different things. One area was an asylum, another was a hallway with cobwebs, a ritual and so on. The effort that was put into creating this experience was palpable in the quality of the spaces set up, and the commitment of the scare actors to their roles. This event is an experience no one should miss out on.
Haunted Floor is “a good, safe event that the students can go to and take a break from studying and hopefully get a little scared as they go along,” Tricia Angus, the Sheehan area coordinator and hall director, said.
Angus has also been responsible for managing the overall set up for the event for the last three or so years. Events like this require a lot of set up to make sure that everything is in place and runs smoothly. Angus explained that Residents Assistants are responsible for different events around campus, the Haunted Floor being one of them. These RAs are the ones who do things like order supplies and gather other volunteers to help.
Third-year student and Sheehan RA Sophia Theiss participated in the event and set up with the rest of the Sheehan RAs in the game room in the basement. Theiss, along with other volunteers, had to plan out how to use the space effectively and set everything up to make it look how it should, haunted. Theiss explained that having multiple volunteers contribute to each section of the space is helpful.
“[It’s nice to have] different hands doing different jobs.” Theiss said.
Anybody is welcome to contribute to setting up events like this. By going to hall council or watching emails from RAs, anyone is welcome to contribute to this spooky event, from basic set up to being one of the scare actors. This is another way to create a sense of community on Winona State’s campus.
“[The event] like a staff bonding where we all get to kind of work together and collaborate with making the haunted house,” Theiss said. “It’s been nice to work together, collaborate and build that community.”
This sense of community can be seen with how everybody was able to work together throughout the experience. After all the scares, they have a snack table for a moment of comfort. The idea behind it is that ‘it is just like a little deep breather for after getting jump scared,’ Elida Roskamp, the president of the Residence Housing Association, said. The Residence Housing Association was a group running a snack table, and definitely had their hands full. The end was flooded with people chatting and grabbing snacks. There were cookies, fruit snacks, donuts, they even had packets for hot chocolate and apple cider. The atmosphere was one of reprieve from the heart racing stroll through the basement of Prentiss-Lucas. Haunted Floor is a fun experience for anyone who enjoys a good scare, and anyone who wants to join the set-up team should.
