The faint sound of screams pierced the air as children were chased by a group of people dressed up as scary creatures with chainsaws. The Haunted House was packed with thrills for people of all ages. Those who attended the event, which has been hosted for six years, helped serve the joint fundraiser between the field hockey and the girls’ soccer teams. The advisors, Andrea Ward and Donna Rynex, were fortunate enough to host the Haunted House for their sixth year this year.

Program coordinator and parent of junior and varsity soccer player Alexis Weeren, Ellen Weeren was extremely passionate about the undertaking of the Haunted House and spent three months preparing for the Haunted House.

“It’s a lot of fun,” Weeren said. “We are doing some new things like adding scenes and updating ones that had become a little expected to our repeated customers.”
The event required many hours of preparation. For this reason, the field hockey and soccer parents, players and coaches began organizing the event in August.  

“The girls get out and sell tickets, the parents set up and manage the scenes and the Haunted House committee makes all the background stuff happen in preparation for the big day,” Weeren said.  

All of the money raised directly benefits both teams, which includes about 100 girls in total. In turn, this enables the athletic boosters to purchase necessary equipment as well as pay for transportation, uniforms, additional training and team bonding festivities.

          Junior Katie Abt plays for the varsity girls’ soccer team and has helped with the event in the past.

“I loved doing the Haunted House because we get to do it with our whole team and our team is really close,” Abt said. “I’m pretty sure between field hockey and soccer, we made around $10,000, which is a huge profit.”

To make sure that nobody fell short on their responsibilities assigned by the moms, the players had a crucial role in ensuring the ultimate success of the Haunted House.  

“It’s what the players make it: if we make it fun and we make it enjoyable then it’s going to be,” Abt said.  

Freshman Haleh Hajibegli is a member of the field hockey team and helped to plan the Haunted House for the very first time.

“I’ve never been to any of the previous haunted houses, but it seems like a lot of fun,” Hajibegli said. “There’s a website where you can sign up for a spot to either scare people or be a tour guide.”

To make sure that the Haunted House was successful, Ellen Weeren hoped for the best in order to reach this years goal .

“It won’t be easy to surpass the success of past years,” Weeren said, “but our goal is certainly to make it the best Haunted House yet.”